Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday addressing an election rally in Eastern U.P.’s Siddharthnagar claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has crossed 310 seats in the five phases of the Lok Sabha election, adding the principal Opposition party the Congress is not even getting 40 Parliamentary seats.
“The INDIA bloc has been wiped out in the first five phases. I am telling you; this time Congress is not even getting 40 seats and Akhilesh Yadav will not even get four seats, we [the BJP] have crossed 310 seats,” Mr. Shah said addressing the rally in support of Domariyaganj Lok Sabha candidate Jagdambika Pal. The Lok Sabha seat comes under Siddharthnagar district. In 2019, Jagdambika Pal won the seat by a margin of over 1,05,000 votes defeating the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Aftab Alam.
The Home Minister asserted that the PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) is a part of India and the ruling dispensation will take it back. “Leaders of Pakistan claim that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is theirs. Congress leaders also say that they [Pakistan] have an atom bomb. But we are not scared of atom bombs. PoK is and will remain part of India and we will take it back,” Mr. Shah asserted.
Pitched the issue of removing Article 370 from the Indian Constitution, the Home Minister targeted Congress for praising Pakistan. “Congress said that removal of Article 370 was wrong. You all tell me whether the removal of Article 370 was wrong,” he asked the crowd. adding, “Kashmir belongs to us [India]. When Modiji become Prime Minister for the 2nd time, he removed Article 370 and made Kashmir an integral part of India. Terrorism ended in Kashmir. The nation is now fully secure and prosperous,” the Home Minister claimed.
Praising the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh under the BJP regime, Mr. Shah claimed that the mafia and anti-social elements migrated away from the State. “Before 2017, U.P. used to witness continuous activities of mafias and anti-social elements with the State being synonymous with lawlessness. But since the BJP government assumed power, anti-social elements started migrating away from U.P.,” the Home Minister said.
