Cong, SP have been wiped out in first phase: Amit Shah in Mathura]

Earlier in the day in an election meeting in Meerut, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the atmosphere had changed in the state and that people had rejected the BJP after the first day of polling. The SP chief and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi shared the dias addressing the first joint election meeting in Amroha on Saturday.

Shah in his turn said, “On the one hand, there is the Congress and the SP, which are involved in scams and corruption worth Rs 12 lakh crores and on the other hand, there is Narendra Modi, who despite being a chief minister for 23 years, is not guilty of corruption of even a penny.” He added, “There are two camps. On one side is our leader Narendra Modi who was born in a poor family and on the other side is Rahul Baba who was born with a silver spoon. You have to decide between the two.”

Taking a jibe at Rahul and Akhilesh, Shah said, “In 2017, two princes had come together … They have come together in 2024 as well, (but) BJP will win maximum seats in Uttar Pradesh.”

In 2017, Congress and SP contested the UP Assembly elections in an alliance, which faced the rout, as the BJP and allies won 325 seats in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly. On one hand, there is Rahul Baba, who takes a holiday abroad in Thailand… on the other is Narendra Modi, who does not take leave even on the day of Diwali. You have to decide between these two,” Shah said.

He claimed that in 2014, before BJP came to power, people were migrating from western UP.

Giving credit to PM Narendra Modi for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and removal of Article 370 in Kashmir, he alleged, “When the consecration ceremony was taking place, Congress and SP were invited. But to appease their vote bank, they did not go for the ‘pran pratishtha’ in Ayodhya.”

“Modi ji abolished Article 370 on August 5, 2019 and linked Kashmir with India forever,” he added.

Attacking the UPA-I and II, Shah said, “Sonia-Manmohan’s rule continued for 10 years, every day, ‘Alia, Malia, Jamalia’ used to come from Pakistan, do bomb blasts and go… In 2014, people of Western UP made Modi ji the PM and when Pakistani terrorists attacked Uri and Pulwama, within 10 days Modi ji entered Pakistan and carried out a surgical and air strikes and eliminated the terrorists.”