Amit Shah hits out at Sonia, Gehlot over dynasty politics
Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday accused the Congress of dynasty politics and said that while party chief Sonia Gandhi wants to make her son the prime minister, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot desires that his son becomes the chief minister.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday accused the Congress of dynasty politics and said that while party chief Sonia Gandhi wants to make her son the prime minister, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot desires that his son becomes the chief minister.
Addressing rallies in Pali and Jalore districts of poll-bound Rajasthan, Shah also hit out at the Gehlot government over alleged corruption in the state and said he had never seen a more corrupt administration in his entire life.
Voting for the 200-member assembly is scheduled to be held on November 25; the results will be announced on December 3.
Addressing the crowd, Shah said: “The Congress party is a family-based party. Gehlot ji wants to make his son (Vaibhav Gehlot) the chief minister and Sonia ji wants to make her son (Rahul Gandhi) the prime minister. They will not think about you.”
He added: “But (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji is thinking of you all. Only Modi ji thinks about you.”
Highlighting the Modi government’s achievements, Shah said: “Modi ji has made the country safe and prosperous. He brought India’s economy from 11th to fifth position. Rajpath was renamed as Kartavya Path, freeing the country from British influence. He built a new Parliament and got the first bill ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ passed in Parliament. By this bill, women will now get 33% reservation in Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.”
The Union minister resumed his attack on the Congress and accused the party of indulging in political appeasement. “The Congress party has always done politics of appeasement, while the BJP has worked fearlessly to uphold the respect of Indian culture,” he said.
Targeting the Gehlot government over alleged corruption, he said: “I have never seen a more corrupt administration in my entire life. The Congress can never uproot corruption or atrocities from Rajasthan. They can never develop Rajasthan. Only PM Modi can safeguard the rights of the people of Rajasthan and develop it.”
He alleged that the Gehlot government cheated the youngsters in the state through the paper leak scam.
“In the last five years, the Gehlot government has cheated more than 40 lakh youngsters by leaking papers. Forty lakh youngsters worked hard all night to prepare for the paper, but Gehlot and company leaked the paper to provide jobs to their kin,” he said.
A government entrenched in corruption cannot do any good for the people, Shah said. “Now that the boat is sinking, they have come up with guarantees,” he said, referring to the Congress’s poll promises that it announced on Tuesday.
Reacting to Shah’s remarks on Sonia’s alleged attempts to make her son the prime minister, Congress general secretary Mevaram Soni said: “It was Sonia Gandhi who sacrificed the prime minister’s post. For the second term, she chose Manmohan Singh, not Rahul Gandhi.”
The BJP lacks arguments against the developmental model of the Gehlot government, Soni said. “The Congress’s guarantees are better and stronger than Modi’s guarantees and the people of the state are aware of this,” Soni said.
Rajasthan is witnessing an intense battle between the BJP and the Congress. The desert state usually votes out the incumbent every five years. But this time, Gehlot is hoping to put up a tough battle, using a bouquet of welfare and cash transfer schemes, and exploiting factionalism in the BJP. But the state’s opposition party is confident that political tradition will continue, and Modi’s popularity will carry the day.