BAREILLY/BUDAUN (UP), May 2: Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday attacked Rahul Gandhi, suggesting that his party will get such a drubbing in election that he will have to take out a ‘Congress Dhoondho Yatra’ after June 4.
Addressing an election rally in Bareilly, Shah alleged that Rahul, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and SP’s Akhilesh Yadav did not attend the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya fearing this may alienate their vote bank.
“The ‘shehzade’ (prince) of ‘ghamandia’ INDI Alliance started his election campaign with Bharat Jodo Yatra but on June 4 (counting day), it will end with a ‘Congress Dhoondho Yatra’,” Shah said.
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“In the first two phases, Congress is nowhere, while Narendra Modi has made a century and taken a lead in the ‘400 race’ (race to 400 seats),” he said.
He said that this election is for ending terrorism and Naxalism and making India the third major economy globally.
Shah hit out at the INDIA bloc partner Samajwadi Party, saying it indulges in dynastic politics, for its president Akhilesh Yadav has given tickets to five members of his family in the current election.
He said that while Akhilesh is contesting from Kannauj and his wife Dimple Yadav is in fray from Mainpuri, Akshay Yadav, Aditya Yadav, and Dharmendra Yadav, all three his family members, are contenders from Firozabad, Budaun, and Azamgarh.
“Had he given a ticket to some Yadav youths, it would have been better,” he said.
Shah said that for the past 70 years, Congress had been stalling the Ram Temple construction, a task the BJP finished.
“When you made Modi PM for the second time, within five years, we won the case, did the groundbreaking, and performed the consecration ceremony of the temple on January 22. Samajwadi Party chief Akhliesh Yadav, Dimple, Rahul and Priyanka, all were invited by the temple trust but they did not attend the consecration ceremony because of the fear of their vote bank,” Shah said.
“You all know who their vote bank is,” he added.
On revoking Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, he said, “Congress president asks what do people of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have to do with Kashmir. He doesn’t know that for Kashmir, every child of Bareilly can sacrifice his life … In Kashmir, our tricolour is flying with pride.”
On the “surgical strike” after Pulwama attack, Shah said that under the past Congress governments, there was no reprisal for such acts and anyone could enter the country and do bomb blasts. “We did a surgical strike inside Pakistan to get rid of terrorists.”
Shah claimed that Uttar Pradesh was riven with communal riots till 2017, when Yogi Adityanath came to power, made it riot-free, and stopped residents’ exodus from western UP.
“In Yogi’s regime, it is the hooligans who are migrating,” he said.
In Samajwadi Party’s UP, factories forged country-made pistols, but now they manufacture tanks and missiles that will be fired on Pakistan, he said.
Claiming that the Opposition’s INDIA bloc is torn with internal differences, he said, “Akhilesh wants to become a chief minister. Sonia ji wants his son (Rahul Gandhi) to become the prime minister. Those who are working to make their family members PM and CM, can they think of the poor’s welfare?”
In Budaun, Shah referred to renovation and other work done on religious places by the Modi government.
“Be it ‘Mahakal ka darbar’, Kedarnath Dham, Badrinath Dham or covering with gold of Somnath temple, Modi made places of faith more energetic. Will SP, BSP and Congress do that?” Shah said.
Referring to Akhilesh and Rahul, he said when he stood up in Parliament to introduce the bill to abolish Article 370, “do ladke” stood against it and claimed the bill will lead to bloodshed in the valley.
“No one has the courage to pelt a stone there. At Lal Chowk, where no one could go … a Krishna Janmashtami procession was taken out,” Shah said on the post-Article 370 Kashmir.
He said that the Congress government did not have courage to counter terrorism due to fear of erosion of its vote bank.
Rahul’s grandmother (Indira Gandhi) gave the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’ but did nothing to see that it happens on the ground, he alleged.
He said Rahul and Akhilesh called COVID vaccine “Modi ki vaccine” and “did politics” on it when the country was battling a pandemic.
“Akhilesh himself went in the night and took the vaccine with Dimple Bhabhi,” he said.
Bareilly and Budaun will go to poll in the third phase on May 7. (PTI)
