AHMEDABAD: Frontloading its development agenda with the ‘double-engine’ push, the BJP in Gujarat is reinforcing its campaign pitch with tried-and-tested Hindutva formula. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday sought to own up the removal of encroachments built across the key districts allegedly by a particular community, saying that Congress was unable to perform its duty due to vote bank politics.
At a rally in the Khambhat assembly constituency in Ananad district, Shah listed demolition works done by the BJP in Muslim areas, saying ‘fake mazars’ were removed from the residence of Lord Krishna’s Dwarka, an island near Gujarat’s Okha town.
“Be it mazar or graves, shouldn’t encroachments be removed? Congress may not like it. Even if they don’t, the BJP will continue the clean-up. There is no need to be afraid,” said Shah. “The state government under CM Bhupendra Patel and Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi removed fake mazars in Beit Dwarka. But the Congress said we were polarizing people,” Shah said.
He also reminded the people about the development works done by the BJP government at various pilgrimage centres. “For years, there was a Mazar in Pavagadh (a pilgrimage spot in Gujarat). It is the BJP government that built a Kali temple atop the hill there. Congress will never do such a thing. But we are not afraid of any vote bank. For the BJP government, the country’s security is more important than us remaining in power,” said Shah.
“Don’t let Congress come to power or else communal riots will begin again and you will again face difficulties,” Shah said. Talking about removing Article 370 in Kashmir, Shah said, “After so many years, PM Modi completed Sardar Patel’s dream of ‘Akhand Bharat’ and our Kashmir adorns the crown of Bharat Mata.”
He also talked about demolition being undertaken in a Muslim-majority area in an Assembly. On April 10, a clash erupted between two communities during a Ram Navami procession in Shakarpur village of Khambhat town that resulted in the death of one person and injuries to at least half-a-dozen people.
Meanwhile, after a dazzling show put up by its top leaders last week in the first phase of polling due December 1, party leaders on Tuesday held local-level meetings across 93 assembly constituencies that go to the polls in the second phase of the state elections.
The elections for the 182-member Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8. At another rally, Shah alleged that the Congress did everything possible to “insult” Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and it has started praising him only now in view of the Gujarat Assembly elections.
Even the last rites of the country’s first deputy prime minister were performed in an “unceremonious” way, the BJP leader said. “I am surprised that the Congress now praises Sardar Patel. Since my childhood, I have never heard any Congress leader talk about Patel. Instead, they left no stone unturned to insult Patel, right from performing his last rites in an unceremonious manner to ensuring that no monument was built in his memory,” Shah said. Voting for Khambhat and 92 other seats will take place on December 5, in the second phase of the Assembly polls.