‘ATM for its Delhi darbar’: Amit Shah releases ‘chargesheet’ against Bhupesh Baghel government

“Baghel ji, if you have courage, answer publicly. Between 2004 and 2014, what did Chhattisgarh get from the Sonia-Manmohan ji government? It got Rs 77,800 crore. In nine years of Modi ji’s government, Chhattisgarh got a total grant of Rs 3.02 lakh crore, which is four times more. In comparison to Modi ji’s rule, not even a third of the BJP’s work was done by the Congress during their rule,” Shah said.

Shah went on to praise the BJP’s Raman Singh, the state’s longest serving chief minister from 2003 to 2018, for “fulfilling former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s dream of carving Chhattisgarh out of Madhya Pradesh” in 2000, when Singh was a Union minister. Though Shah mentioned Modi at the Centre in the 2024 elections, he did not mention any names for the Chief Minister candidate in Chhattisgarh.

“The ‘double-engine sarkar’ with Modi ji in 2024 elections and the BJP in Assembly elections will bring Chhattisgarh back on the track of development. The Congress government is full of corruption, casteism, nepotism,” he said.

Criticising Baghel on the issue of corruption, Shah said, “Bhupesh ke naam me hi ‘pay’ hai (His name has ‘pay’ in it). Woh ‘Delhi Darbar’ ke darbari hai (He answers to the Congress’s central leadership). The Baghel government has broken all the records of corruption. This government is full of corruption, misappropriation, discrimination, crimes against women, and fake promises.” He said that the Congress had also gone back on its promise to prohibit liquor after the alleged liquor scam in the excise department, under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate.

Shah listed several alleged scams under the Congress including the Rs 2,161-crore liquor scam, the Public Distribution System scam, the Rs 5,000-crore Mahadev online betting scam, and the District Mineral Fund (DMF) misuse scam. “The Baghel government is working like an ATM for its ‘Delhi darbar’. All the money goes to the Gandhi family and coffers of the Baghel government. His government has given free hand to MLAs to do corruption. The name ‘collector’ is given as they collect revenue but this government has changed its meaning. Now, collector means one who collects their corruption money,” he said. He also accused the Congress government of “auctioning government jobs” and cheating deserving candidates.

“He did not give the unemployment allowance and instead sent the youths to Dubai for training them in a Mahadev gambling app involving Rs 5,000 crores. Our leaders are not afraid of the ED probe,” he added.

Shah also said the Baghel government was implementing central government schemes, like the Jal Jeevan Mission, poorly. “We wanted to provide 24 lakh home connections for clean drinking water and had a target of 50 lakh but the Chhattisgarh government poorly implemented it. If the people of Chhattisgarh vote us back to power, I promise in two years every house will get clean drinking water,” he said. As per government figures, out of the 50.1 lakh households in Chhattisgarh, only 26.6 lakh have a tap water connection.

Throughout his speech, Shah praised the development work done by the Modi government. He also said the number of medical colleges, schools, industrial training institutes, engineering seats, dental colleges, mobile towers, roads, highways and railway lines went up during Raman Singh’s 15-year rule.