Raising the electoral pitch in the Brij region of Uttar Pradesh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in Mathura on Thursday that the upcoming Assembly election in the State was no ordinary election, as they would decide the future of the country. “Women in Mathura check their matki (pitcher) before buying by tapping it twice. Do check out whom you are voting for before casting your ballot,” said Mr. Shah after conducting a door-to-door campaign in the district where the party is facing a tough fight from the SP-RLD alliance and the BSP.
Mr. Shah said the upcoming election would decide what kind of ideology would govern the State. He said that before the BJP came to power, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party worked only for specific castes. “They never gave a road map for the composite development of the State and followed the policy of casteism, nepotism and appeasement.” It is only when the BJP governments came to power at the Centre and in the State, he said, that sabka saath, sabka vikas became a reality. “The BJP government belongs to the whole society,” he said. Accusing the opposition parties of not being serious about national security, Mr. Shah said time had come for voters to choose between an individual or a party and the security of the country and the State. “They could not manage Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh,” he said and went on to describe U.P. as a sensitive border State as it shared a border with Nepal.
Citing the abrogation of Article 370, Mr. Shah said the party did not indulge in vote bank politics. “Those who said rivers of blood would flow if such a decision was taken are now surprised that not even a pebble has been hurled.”
Describing construction of the Ram Temple and the Kashi-Vishwanath corridor as cultural nationalism, Mr. Shah said no party worked for the re-development of pilgrimage centres.
He accused the SP of supporting criminal elements. “Azam Khan has committed so many crimes that the police ran out of sections of the Indian Penal code. The government has freed acres of land from the control of mafia. During the BJP rule crime rate had come down in the State,” he said.
“There has been a 70% drop in dacoities and cases of loot has come down by 72%. The number of murders has come down by 29%, murder and kidnapping by 35%. You have to decide whether you want a government that stands for development or goondaism ,” Mr. Shah said.
