BJP’s president Amit Shah on Tuesday said that Gujarat elections would not be contested between parties but it would be battle of caste-based politics led by dynasty versus development agenda.
“We will need to see whether dynasty and casteism will win or Narendra Modi’s development agenda. The Opposition party doesn’t have any issue except opposing Narendra bhai,” said Shah adding that Congress resorted to KHAM (Kshtriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim) theory in 1985 and tried to divide the society. Contrarily BJP united the society during its rule from 1995 to 2015 in Gujarat, he added.
Shah was speaking at Bhavnagar where he accompanied Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani for the filing of latter’s nomination. He went on to say that electors will have to decide what they want — ‘Jativad’ or ‘Vikasvad’. In order to strike a chord with people, he asked them would they want to fall in trap of Congress ploy to divide society in the name of caste or want to strengthen Narendra Modi’s hand for future development. He blamed Congress party for delaying Narmada Dam project and raised issue of injustice to the State by not giving importance to Sardar Patel and Morarji Desai. He also asked the Opposition party why it didn’t give Bharat Ratna to Sardar Patel.
“Congress Government didn’t give AIIMS to Gujarat. The party also didn’t deliver oil, gas subsidy. Contrary to that Narendra Modi Government released Rs 5,000 crore gas royalty to Gujarat. During Congress ruled Gujarat used to get Rs 63,343 crore allocated from finance commission but after BJP-led NDA Government came into power from May 2014 the amount increased to Rs 1,58,370 crore,” he said.