HYDERABAD: Reaffirming the BJP’s stance on quotas, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs would not end as long as there was at least one saffron party MP in Parliament.
Addressing an election rally in Kagaznagar (Adilabad Lok Sabha constituency), he reiterated that while religious reservations will be scrapped, the quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs will be increased. He also alleged that TPCC president and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy shared a doctored video of him speaking on reservations.
Referring to the case filed against him over engaging children in election campaigning, Shah, who also addressed public meetings in Nizamabad and Secunderabad on Sunday, said, “I will not cry like Revanth Reddy. I will approach the high court.”
The senior BJP leader exuded confidence that the saffron party will emerge victorious in 10 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. Alleging that the vote bank of the Congress and the AIMIM are the same, Shah claimed that former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi did not attend the Ram temple consecration despite being invited due to fear that their presence at the event in Ayodhya would upset their vote bank.
Slamming the Opposition for their “lies” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will abolish reservations if the BJP secures a majority in the Lok Sabha elections, the union home minister pointed out that Modi has had the majority for 10 years. “During this time, he abrogated Article 370, outlawed triple talaq and built the Ram temple,” he added.
Addressing a public meeting in Nizamabad, Shah alleged that while GST is collected elsewhere in the country, the RR (‘Rahul-Revanth’) tax was being collected in the state. “This tax is being sent to Delhi’s durbar”, he added.
Terming them “ABC”, the union home minister accused AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, the BRS and the Congress of engaging in appeasement of the Muslim community. As a part of this, they placed a ban on the Ram Shobha yatra in Hyderabad, he alleged.
Taking a jibe at Kharge over his remarks on the abrogation of Article 370 at a public meeting in Secunderabad, Shah said that the Congress president was ignorant of the views of Telangana people, who are ready and willing to lay down their lives for Kashmir.
Stating that while four generations of the Congress chanted ‘Garibi Hatao’ slogans but did nothing to address poverty, the union home minister asserted that Modi gave houses, gas, toilets, free electricity, rations, medicines and water to 80 crore poor people. He asked voters, “Tell me, what is your choice?”
