Rahul Gandhi fled to Kerala as Amethi will seek account of his work: Amit Shah
LUCKNOW: Intensifying the BJP campaign and preparing the party for the first phase of battle royale on the turf of western UP on April 11, BJP president Amit Shah sought votes for BJP candidates in Jat dominant Baghpat and Dalit dominant Nagina on Sunday. Addressing his first public rally in Baghpat, BJP national president took the Congress party on target and fired a salvo at its president Rahul Gandhi accusing him of exploring a second option in Waynad, Kerala to test poll waters as he could see his ‘defeat’ coming through in his bastion Amethi.
“Rahul baba fears that Amethi voters will seek an account of the work done by him and his party all through these years,” said Shah.
“The Congress chief is fleeing to Kerala as he hardly has anything to tell about his work to the people of Amethi if the voters will seek an account from him.”
Referring to recent verdict in Samjhauta Express blast case, Shah said: “The Congress had given clean chit to Pakistan terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in Samjhauta Express bomb blast case and sent Swami Aseemanand and other innocent persons to jail,” he said. “It was the Congress party which coined the term Hindu Atankwaad (terrorism) linking terror to religion in the country just for votes,” he added.
The BJP chief charged the Congress leadership with attaching a tag of terrorism to Hindus. He claimed that Hindus, who fed even the ants with flour, couldn’t be terrorist.
Baghpat is a VIP constituency offering an interesting battle on the cards as it will witness a direct fight between BJP’s sitting MP and Modi Minister Dr Satyapal Singh and RLD vice president Jayant Chaudhury.
Both Singh and Chaudhury have their main clout among jats who have a sizeable population in Baghpat which is considered to be an RLD pocket borough.
However, in 2014, BJP’s Satyapal Singh had restricted RLD chief Ajit Singh to the third slot defeating SP’s Ghulam Mohammad as his nearest rival by over two lakh votes. Ajit Singh has been a Bhagpat MP thrice in 1999, 2004 and 2009.
This time his son Jayant is seeking election from Baghpat to salvage pride from the constituency prestigious to the family. In fact, Jayant also created a flutter on Sunday in Baghpat by claiming that the ruling party was targeting people on religious lines.
Later, addressing the second Vijay Sankalp Rally at Bijnore and seeking votes for BJP candidate and sitting MP Dr Yashwant Singh from adjoining Nagina, the reserved Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP chief repeated the ‘Hindu Atankwad’ narrative.
Shah sought the Congress leadership to apologise to the nation for “committing the sin of defaming Hindu community with a terror tag.” He called it a part of opposition’s politics of appeasement all this long.
Shifting the narrative to Pulwama terror incident, Shah credited the Modi government for avenging sacrifice of CRPF jawans by conducting airstrikes across the border. “We don’t care for votes, but the nation should remain secured,” he claimed.
He charged the Congress with speaking the language of terrorists. He also trained guns at the SP-BSP alliance accusing it of following the politics of appeasement.
He trained guns at SP-BSP alliance calling it the consequence of ‘Modi fear.’ “The arch rivals who could not stand each other, have come together for survival,” he said.