Renewing the focus on Uttar Pradesh, Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday held a review of 13 Lok Sabha seats, targeted the Samajwadi Party (SP)over dynastic politics, emphasised that the choice for voters is between those who fired at karsevak and those who built the Ram temple in Ayodhya and assured that the BJP had no plan of doing away with reservation, nor will it allow anyone to do so.
Shah was addressing Lok Sabha election rallies in Mainpuri and Etah, which go to polls in the third phase on May 7. The rallies were followed by Shah, hailed as the brain behind the BJP’s phenomenal Lok Sabha poll wins in Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and 2019, undertaking the comprehensive review of 13 parliamentary seats in the state with party leaders in Kanpur in a bid to rev up the BJP poll machinery and boost the voter turnout after low polling in the first two phases evoked concern.
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Addressing complaints about the MLAs not extending support to the candidates was also said to be on the agenda, besides a scrutiny of the party’s outreach programmes.
At the day’s rallies, Shah, in his attack on the SP, said if party chief Akhilesh Yadav had more family members above 25 years of age, he would have made them contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Why can’t he (Akhilesh) get any Yadav other than his family members to contest the election, Shah asked
“Akhilesh Yadav claims to be the champion of the Yadav community but I want to ask him why he cannot find any Yadav other than his family fit to contest elections. After Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son Akhilesh Yadav became chief minister and is contesting from Kannauj. Dimple Yadav became MP from Mainpuri and is again in the fray. Other family members include Akshay Yadav who is contesting from Firozabad, Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh and Aditya Yadav from Budaun,” he highlighted.
“Is this the way one can claim to be the well-wisher of Yadavs? Akhilesh Yadav has joined hands with the Congress, which during its rule in Karnataka, reduced the share of backwards in reservation and gave it to Muslims. The Congress held back the Mandal Commission report for years and yet they claim themselves to be leaders of the backwards,” Shah alleged.
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In the SP bastion of Mainpuri, the BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh minister Jaiveer Singh against sitting MP and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav. Two-term sitting MP Rajveer Singh, son of former chief minister and ex-Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh governor Kalyan Singh, is the BJP candidate in Etah.
Shah also claimed major gains for the BJP in the ongoing parliamentary polls and said, “After the second phase (of the Lok Sabha election), a wave flows from west UP in favour of the BJP which, via Mainpuri and till Azamgarh, will wipe out all dynastic rule. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already scored more than a century (of seats) and the (Opposition) alliance is yet to open its account in the first two phases.”
Attacking the SP leadership for skipping the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22, Shah said, ‘’Invitation was extended to Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Madam, but none came to the pran pratishtha ceremony at Ayodhya, but opted to go and recite fatiha at the grave of a mafia (a reference to Akhilesh, earlier this month, visiting the residence of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari who died following a cardiac arrest in Banda on March 28). Voters have to decide if they will vote for those who fired at karsevaks or those who built Ram temple in Ayodhya,” asked Amit Shah.
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On the issue of reservation, he said, “It is false propaganda by opposition parties who are functioning more as “jhooth ki factory” (factory of falsehood).”
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government had a full majority for two terms at the Centre but never thought of ending reservation, yet the opposition parties are resorting to false propaganda that if the BJP gets 400 seats this time, it will end reservation. The BJP has no plans to end reservation nor will allow it anybody else to end the reservation and this is Modi’s guarantee,” Shah said.
Continuing his verbal attack, Shah said, ”When during COVID, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought free vaccines for the nation, Akhilesh Yadav termed it Modi’s vaccine but secretly went along with Dimple Bhabhi to have the vaccine.”
Taking on the Opposition INDIA bloc, he said, “’It is only Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will have more than 400 seats and run the nation. The INDI alliance has no PM face……Who will become PM….will it be Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Rahul Baba, Akhilesh Yadav for a year each?…how will the nation work?”
Asking Mainpuri voters not to be afraid of the SP workers who he said were in the habit of causing a nuisance during elections, Shah added, “The Election Commission will correct them in a befitting manner.”
“When we presented the bill to abrogate Article 370 from J & K, Rahul Baba (Congress leader Rahul Gandhi) warned that blood will flow in the Kashmir Vallye, but under the Narendra Modi regime, none could even pelt stones,” he said.
Touching upon the BJP government’s welfare schemes, he said, “It is Modi’s guarantee that 5kg of ration per unit given to 80 crore poor will continue till the year 2029.”
