Amit Shah: BJP will trace, drive out infiltrators after 2019 polls

Amit Shah

BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday said his party would trace and drive out infiltrators from the country after winning the 2019 general elections under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. Addressing a poll rally, Shah said infiltrators were coming to India since 1971 and formed the "vote bank" of opposition parties like the Congress and TMC.

Shah said after 40 lakh people were left out in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, leaders like Congress president Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav "whined as if their granny had died". "All of them (objected to the NRC).

As if their granny died. Why were they all in pain?" he said, accusing Gandhi of being more concerned with the human rights of "infiltrators" than victims of bomb blasts carried out by these "intruders". "Let the Congress cry, we are not going to stop. You elect Narendra Modi's government in 2019. It will trace and drive out infiltrators not only from Assam, but from the entire country," Shah said, adding national security was most important for his party. Shah also lauded the Modi-led government for the army's surgical strike on terror launch pads across the border post Uri attack in 2016, adding Gandhi did not understand the value of martyrdom of soldiers.

The BJP chief also sought to underscore difference between the Modi-led NDA government and the previous Manmohan Singh dispensation at the Centre when it came to "doing justice" to Madhya Pradesh. The Singh-led government allocated Rs 1.34 lakh crore to Madhya Pradesh under 13th Finance Commission as against Rs 3.44 lakh crore given by the Modi regime under the 14th Finance Commission, he said. "I want to ask (Congress leaders Jyotiraditya) Scindia Maharaj, Diggy Raja (Digvijay Singh) and also Kamal Nath: Tell us why this injustice was done to Madhya Pradesh," he said. Shah said the Modi government brought out 129 schemes for welfare of farmers, backward classes, Dalits, poor, youth and women.

"We brought 129 schemes. Rahul Baba (Gandhi) listen carefully, if you have ears and remove your Italian chasmha (spectacles)," Shah said, alluding to the origins of the Congress president's mother Sonia Gandhi. Seeking to underscore differences between the BJP and Congress, Shah said his party had already announced Chouhan as its face for the chief ministerial job. "Congress should tell who is its leader in the state?" he added. Shah said scams of over Rs 12 lakh took place during the 10-year rule of the Congress. "Rahul Gandhi neither speaks about the work his party did in Madhya Pradesh nor about his party's (poll) agenda. I don't understand if he is campaigning for Congress or BJP. He is suffering from Modi phobia," Shah said.

Shah also reached out to tribals in the poll-bound state and informed them of several welfare measures being taken by the party-led governments at the Centre and in the state. "Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had opened a separate Tribal Welfare ministry which the Congress couldn't do before," Shah said. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP is locked in a direct contest with the Congress, which is out of power for 15 years in a row. The elections to the 230-seat Madhya Pradesh Assembly will be held on November 28. Polls results will be out on December 11.

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