BHOPAL: Eyeing to win all 29 seats of Madhya Pradesh in the coming Lok Sabha polls, union home minister and BJP’s prime strategist Amit Shah spent entire Sunday in the central Indian state – addressing Lok Sabha cluster office bearers, booth level workers and enlightened citizens.
Considered as the mind behind BJP’s resounding 2023 MP assembly polls success, Shah started the Sunday visit with a meeting with Gwalior-Chambal region’s Lok Sabha cluster (comprising Morena, Gwalior, Guna and Bhind-SC) office bearers in Gwalior. He then addressed a gathering of booth level workers of the Khajuraho constituency (which has been left by Congress for the Samajwadi Party) and ended the day by addressing intellectuals and prominent citizens in the capital Bhopal.
Addressing a gathering of intellectuals and prominent citizens in the evening, Shah drew parallels between Mahabharata (Pandavas Vs Kauravas battle) and the coming LS polls. “The coming elections are a battle between those who live for the country and those who live for their families. Any political party is identified by its programs. What is the Congress’s program, it’s to carry out Yatra when elections are there and set a new member of its family. BJP on the other hand, right since the Bharatiya Jana Sangh days, has been working to strengthen the nation, spanning from the movement for the abrogation of Indian Constitution’s Article 370 to the Ram Temple Movement and LK Advani’s Yatra against corruption," he said.
“Our party since its inception has been working for strengthening the nation and not for launching any Rajkumar (prince). Only one man, Rahul Gandhi, has been launched by the Congress every time in a new look since the last 20 years. But he is that rocket that doesn’t get launched, as it reverses just after every launch. They (Congress) are again out in the elections with the same rocket,” Shah said, making a sweep at ex-AICC president Rahul Gandhi and his ongoing Manipur-Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which is slated to enter in MP on March 2.
Slamming the Congress over its Karnataka MP DK Suresh’s recent “separate nation for South India remark,” Shah said, “What has happened to the party which was once led by Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad? It’s so helpless that it can’t even distance itself from such remarks of dividing the country into two parts. To all of you all present here, I guarantee BJP will never allow the country’s division to happen.”
Seeking a third decisive term with 400-plus seats for the NDA government led PM Modi, Shah said “As you all shape the public opinion, let me assure you that the PM has set many targets for the future, including making India a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2027 and third largest economy in next five years, taking exports to two trillion dollars by 2030, hosting Summer Olympics in India in 2036, sending humans to the moon by 2040 and making India completely developed and global superpower in 2047. For these targets to be achieved, a third decisive term for the present central government is necessary.”
Earlier addressing the booth-level workers gathering in Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency, Shah urged every booth level worker to turn into a Narendra Modi and add 370 additional votes on each booth to attain the target of winning all 29 seats in MP and 370-plus seats for the BJP nationally.
According to party insiders who were present at the meeting of the Gwalior-Chambal region’s four seats-strong LS cluster, Shah asked them to ensure that starting with the coming election, the BJP should become unbeaten in MP, just like it has turned invincible in Gujarat.
In his around hour-long speech in Gwalior to the party’s LS cluster office bearers, Shah said, “It was time that we worked to break the Congress backbone at polling booths, by getting their dedicated but neglected booth level workers in the BJP’s ranks.”
Political/electoral significance of Amit Shah’s Sunday visit to MP
*Starting the Sunday visit from Gwalior-Chambal region is important as Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will enter the state from that region only on March 2.
*Among the five broad regions of the state, BJP won the lowest 18 seats in Gwalior-Chambal against Congress’s 16 seats in recent assembly polls.
* If the Gwalior-Chambal assembly polls results are looked at with Lok Sabha seats view, the party trailed behind Congress in Morena and was neck to neck in Gwalior and Bhind, but was far ahead of its prime rival in Guna.
*Shah’s second stop on Sunday was Khajuraho, which has been left by the Congress for the Samajwadi Party as per the latest seat-sharing deal. All eight assembly segments were won by the BJP in recent assembly polls.
*His last spot on Sunday was Bhopal, where the party has been winning LS polls since 1989 and won 6 out of the eight assembly segments in 2023 elections.