By Firstdespatch Desk Apr 30, 2024
Guwahati, Apr 30 (FD) Union Home Minister Amit Shah today said BJP was heading toward winning 400 seats in the parliamentary elections being held in seven phases in the country and vows to continue reservations for SC,ST and OBC.
Addressing a press conference here Shah said, the BJP has already far surpassed the 100 seats mark and is heading towards winning 400 seats.
He said, “In the two phases of the election in the states of Assam, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand, we are looking at a big electoral victory. We will win a big victory, in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu”.
“The voting has already taken place in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.The initial trends show that even in southern India the BJP is getting very good responses. This is the reason we will surely realise the goal of winning 400 seats”, he justified.
Shah slammed the opposition Congress for its attempts to thwart the BJP’s goal of winning 400 seats.
“They are peddling the narrative that the BJP will change the constitution and also have disseminated the blatant lie that the BJP will end reservations if the BJP wins 400 seats. Both these claims are baseless and are not based on facts”, he said.
The people of India have blessed the BJP with an absolute majority twice in 2014 and 2019, he said adding the party has been running the government for 10 years with an absolute majority.
“We have never used the majority to strangle democracy by imposing an emergency as Congress did. We have never used it to change the constitution or to extend the term of the Lok Sabha. We have used the majority to end Article 370, Triple Talaq, repeal of colonial laws to make India’s own laws and reform laws and processes to fight the pandemic, our government also used the mandate to pave the way to build the Ram Temple after the court verdict. Congress party is trying to mislead people by spreading falsehoods”, he told the press conference.
Shah further criticized the Congress party for spreading a rumour that BJP would withdraw the reservations for the SC, ST and OBC if they could win more than 400 seats.
“I want to clarify that the BJP is a staunchest supporter of the SC, ST and OBC reservations and will continue to play the role of the invincible guard of the reservations. Even Narendra Modi Ji has clarified it in public speeches. If any party has robbed the SC, ST and OBC communities of their right to reservations then it are the Congress”, he said.
Shah said, as they provided reservations for Muslims in undivided Andhra Pradesh the share of the OBCs in reservations were reduced. In Karnataka, Muslims were included in the OBC category and given 4% reservations overnight and that too without any survey of backwardness. This too resulted in the reduction of the share of reservation of the OBCs, he added.
The union home minister stated that BJP firmly believes that reservations based on religion are unconstitutional and the party would be in power in those states will abolish the Muslim reservations and will give the SCs, STs and the OBCs their rights back.
He said, “Due to sheer frustrations the Congress is now started making and sharing fake videos of mine and some other BJP leaders. Even chief ministers and state presidents have shared such videos. Fortunately what I actually said was also recorded. We came up with the original video and the wheat was separated from the chaff”.
He said, prominent leaders of the Congress party are facing criminal cases, which manifest their frustrations.
“Since Rahul Gandhi took over the reins of the Congress, the standard of their politics has slipped down continuously. Under his leadership the Congress party is indulging in acts like not participating in the Lok Sabha debates, walking out of the Rajya Sabha, causing a ruckus, and misleading people with baseless lies”, he said.
The act of disseminating fake videos to garner support is highly condemnable. No prominent party had ever indulged in such activities earlier. Parties should contest elections based on their programs, principles and commitments, not by circulating fake videos or presenting a manipulated version of the manifesto of the BJP.
He said, BJP stands with the women power of the country and also mentioned that the Gandhi family has no courage left to face the election and that is why the members of the family have left their traditional seats and fled. FD