Speaking from the Kurmi-belt of eastern Uttar Pradesh, BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday launched an attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his overtures in the State ahead of the >2017 Assembly elections and advised voters to vote sensibly.
Dismissing Mr. Nitish as a “votekatua” (vote-splitter), Mr. Shah alleged the Bihar leader’s increasing presence in Purvanchal was merely to distract voters and provide benefit to the Samajwadi Party.
“Even Nitish Kumar knows not a single MLA of his can win in UP. I ask of Nitish Babu, he cannot handle the [law and order] situation in Patna, what good will he do in U.P?” Mr. Shah told a ‘Jan Swabhiman rally’, organised in Varanasi by NDA ally Apna Dal to mark the 67th birth anniversary of its founder Sone Lal Patel.
Just like Mr. Patel, Mr. Kumar belongs to the Kurmi community, the second most prominent OBC in U.P., and a prime target of the BJP this time considering its pitch to rally non-Yadav OBCs. Sharing the stage with Mr. Shah was Mr. Patel’s daughter Anupriya Patel, an MP from Mirzapur.
The BJP president hailed the contribution of Sonelal Patel in the uplift of “Dalits and backwards.”
Mr. Shah has, in his rallies and booth-level meetings in U.P., consistently blamed the SP government for thwarting the pro-Dalit and pro-backward welfare policies and schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP chief urged voters to uproot the Akhilesh government if it wanted the benefits of the NDA schemes, like the Jan Dhan Jojana, the Fasal Beema Yojana, Mudra Yojana and Ujjwal Yojana, to reach the poor.
Simplifying the Centre-State coordination, he compared the NDA government to a “power plant” whose supply was not being allowed to reach the homes of the poor due to a “bad transformer,” the SP government. “The SP government fears that the BJP, the NDA and Modiji will get the credit for these policies if they reach you,” Mr. Shah said. The SP responded to his attack and asked about the contribution made by the 71 BJP MPs in UP have in the state’s development. “The Centre’s relief fund to the State is yet to arrive. Mr. Shah’s claims about the Centre’s help are utter lies,” SP cabinet minister Rajendra Chaudhary said.
Giving the clarion of a “SP-BSP mukt” UP, the BJP leader also ruled out Mayawati’s party’s as a replacement to Mr. Yadav’s government, saying that the cycle of power between the two State parties must end. Mocking the recent exit of top leaders from the BSP, Mr. Shah said it seemed by the time election approached, Ms. Mayawati would be the only leader left in the party.
Mr. Shah also mocked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for asking the BJP government to provide an account of the work done by it in the last two years. He said Mr. Gandhi could not see the difference between the UPA and NDA governments as he was wearing “Italian glasses.” Accusing the UPA government of scams of Rs. 12 lakh crore in its 10-year rule, Mr. Shah jokingly said the party did not spare even space and underworld. “In space, they did the 2G and ISRO scams, in sky the helicopter scam, the CWG and Adarsh scams on land, the submarine scam in the sea and the coal scam underworld.”
