May 02, 2024 09:03 PM IST
In an interview with News18, Amit Shah also spoke on NDA’s target to achieve 400 seats, the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and more.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the first citizenship will be issued under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA before the last phase of the election.
“Applications have started to come in. Scrutiny is happening according to the rules,” Shah told News18 in an interview. “And I think before the elections, before the last phase, the process of giving citizenship will start.” Follow full coverage of the Lok Sabha elections.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government in March implemented the CAA, which paves the way for citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014. The development came four years after Parliament passed the law in December 2019.
The notification of the Act triggered criticism from Opposition leaders, who claimed that the notified rules were “unconstitutional”, “discriminatory” and violative of the “secular principle of citizenship” enshrined in the Constitution.
Also Read | ‘Neither Cong will ever come to power…’: Amit Shah on Chidambaram’s ‘repeal CAA’ vow
During Thursday’s interview, Shah expressed confidence in achieving NDA’s goal of crossing 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
“You will see on counting day (June 4, 2024), before 12.30 pm, NDA will cross 400, Modi ji will again become Prime Minister…My party’s team and I have done a detailed analysis. We are moving towards the third phase with well over 100 seats from the first two. I don’t see any problem in crossing the target of 400,” the home minister told News 18.
On Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest
In his interview, Amit Shah also spoke about the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the liquor policy case and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren in a money laundering case.
Also Read | Why did you skip ED summons, SC asks Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
“They did not appear after many summonses. If they had appeared [before the agency] after the first summons, they would have been arrested six months before the elections. Many times, summonses were sent, but they did not come,” Amit Shah told News18.
On low voter turnout in first two phases
On the low voter turnout in the first two phases of the Lok Sabha polls, Shah said: “There are many reasons for the lower turnout. After twelve years, the electoral rolls have been revised. The second reason is that there is no contest from the other side, which affects the turnout in a way.”
More than 10 days after Phase 1 and four days after Phase 2 of polling for the ongoing general elections, the Election Commission of India (EC) released the final voter turnout figures for the two rounds on April 30.
While Phase 1 saw a turnout of 66.14%, for Phase 2, it was 66.7%, a drop of just under 4 percentage points for the first phase and under 3 percentage points for the second phase compared to the 2019 elections.
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