Only one person can ensure country’s security: Amit Shah

Poll is about Modi, Mr. Shah asserts before filing his nomination

Show of strength: BJP chief Amit Shah during a roadshow in Ahmedabad on Saturday. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goel and Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani are seen.

Flanked by senior party colleagues and NDA allies, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha election from Gandhinagar, replacing the party’s veteran parliamentarian L.K. Advani.

Before filing the papers at the Gandhinagar Collector’s office, Mr. Shah along with the Shiromani Akali Dal’s Parkash Singh Badal, Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray, LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan and top BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari addressed a rally and held a massive roadshow in a show of strength in Ahmedabad.

The Union Home Minister termed Mr. Shah the “successor of L.K. Advani, who represented Gandhinagar” for two decades.

The presence of the allies and top union ministers at the rally is seen as public acknowledgment that Mr. Shah is the most powerful leader after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not only in the BJP but also in the NDA.

BJP President Amit Shah speaking to people during a road show in Ahmedabad on Saturday, March 30, 2019.

“I am fortunate that BJP has made me the candidate from Gandhinagar seat that was represented by Lal Krishna Advani, Atalji and Purushottam Ganesh Mavalankar,” said Mr. Shah. “It is this region from where I was elected MLA for five times and I began my electoral journey,” he added.

Mr. Shah made clear that the parliamentary elections would be fought on the issue of national security and the fight against terrorism.

“This election will be fought on only one issue, and that is, who will lead this country,” Mr. Shah asserted. “When I ask who will lead the country, from Himachal to Kanyakumari and from Kamrup to Gandhinagar, only one word is heard, that is: Modi, Modi, Modi,” he said, addressing party workers in Naranpura, his erstwhile Assembly constituency.

He stressed that only Mr. Modi, the BJP and the NDA government could secure the country’s interests.

“The question before the country is who can assure security to the country? Only one person, only one party can assure this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and NDA government can assure security to the country,” he contended.

Mr. Thackeray said that “both BJP and Shiv Sena were guided by the common ideology of Hindutva.”