Amit Shah sets target for cadres; says politics of the future could be “BJP versus others”
After carving out BJP’s spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh in the lok Sabha polls, the new BJP president Amit Shah has set his eyes on massive expansion of the party and winning the upcoming Assembly elections in four States. In his acceptance speech after the National Council of the party ratified his elections as the party chief, Shah asked the party men to reach out to people with the strength of well-knit organisation and good governance model in various States and the Centre.
In his hour-long address to nearly 2,000 members of the Council in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior leaders like lK Advani, Arun Jaitley, MM Joshi and outgoing party chief Rajnath Singh, Shah underscored the need for both political expansion and of the party and its ideological growth.
He said with BJP coming to power on its own at the Centre, the role of the party has changed and “so our mindset should also change and the party should act as a bridge between the people and the Government.”
For good measures, he also focussed on the failure of the UPA Government and renewed Modi’s call for “Congress-free” India. “The verdict of this election is a clear rejection of the politics of dynasty, appeasement, and vote bank. It also is an undisputed triumph of the hope and aspirations of the people of India,” he said.
Calling for freeing the country from the Congress, Shah said Congress culture needs to be replaced by that of the BJP and the party’s foremost priority should be to win the upcoming Assembly elections in the four States with a big majority. “For long Congress ‘vichar’ (ideology) has been predominant in the country’s politics. Now it is time to ensure our ‘vichar’ has an imprint on nation’s politics,” said Shah.
Shah was also unsparing in his criticism of other parties, including Nitish Kumar of JD(U) and Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party and said it was necessary that the BJP should capture power in these two States as well. Setting up an ambitious task for the party, he went on to say that BJP should also strive to form Governments even in states where it has marginal presence.
“The country is yet to be rid of Congress. The cadres should keep this in mind... Assembly elections are coming in the four States of Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. We need to ensure that we get absolute majority in all these States. This is our foremost priority. But our long-term objective is to provide good governance to the entire country,” he said.
Shah stressed that to remain in power for long the party must fulfil its promises and exhorted all the Ministers in the NDA Government to work for implementation of the party manifesto. He gave special emphasis on the pledge to clean up the Ganges. Pointing out that the Congress was not able to open its accounts in 14 seats in the general elections; he said the party even lost the right to get the status of leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha.
Coming back to the upcoming Assembly polls of Haryana, Shah attacked Congress president Sonia Gandhi son-in-law Robert Vadra without taking his name. “The cadres should remember “land scams” and “some faces” during the election campaign.
Asking the cadres to strengthen the party in the State, he said the BJP should try to gain majority on its own. “There is a need to change the Government in the state. We should see that BJP alone gets the majority,” he said, adding any possibility of alliance would be seen later. “Even if there is an alliance, BJP on its own should have more than 45 (out of total 90),” Shah said.
Shah next picked up on Jammu & Kashmir and said the Government in the “very sensitive State” had crossed “all limits of corruption” and people want a change there. He said whoever may be in-charge of the poll, but the cadres from across the country must pool in their resources to ensure BJP’s success in J&K.
In an apparent reference to Nehru-Gandhi family and Abdullah family, Shah said, “The two families have ensured that money does not reach the poor. We have to highlight this.”
Talking about the prevailing situation in UP, he said the law in the State is a matter of “serious concern” because of “biased” attitude of the Akhilesh Yadav Government for which “religion” is a criterion for governance.
Pointing out that BJP has 73 out of 80 lok Sabha seats in the state, Shah said the party has “greater responsibility” than the State Government in ensuring peace in the State. “We have to exercise restraint. But we have to spread awareness about the vote bank and appeasement policy being followed by the State Government,” the party chief said.
The new BJP chief was highly critical of former Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar for allying with lalu Prasad-led RJD. “Nitish came to power by saying he was fighting against ‘jungle raj’ of lalu Prasad. Now he has gone and sat in the lap of the same lalu without any hesitation. There is no shame. In politics, principles matter more than numbers… We need to expose this immoral alliance,” he said.
Shah credited the “twin” leadership of Narendra Modi and outgoing party chief Rajnath Singh for the spectacular success of the party in lok Sabha elections. He said that the unprecedented victory for the party has also brought a challenge before it indicating that the politics of the future could be “BJP versus others”, like the earlier years when it was “Congress versus others”.
“The Congress ideology has influenced us all these years. Time has come when our ideology needs to be spread. In 2014, the party is going to take a new direction,” he said, adding that a Congress-free India can become a reality only if “we ensure the BJP’s victory in every part of the country.”Shah told party workers that the party’s victory marks the beginning of the end of the Congress era and lauded Modi as a leader in post-Independence generation who has established himself as a harbinger of the golden era of good governance.
Only ideology-inspired leadership, he said, can deliver good governance. “As we all know, ideological commitment has gone a long way in making our Prime Minister and all our Chief Ministers enviable icons of good governance. let us resolve to march ahead as torch-bearers of our ideology,” he said.