HAILING the Gujarat Chief Minister as the “future CM”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah accompanied Bhupendra Patel as he filed his nomination papers on Wednesday. Addressing a public gathering, Shah added that Patel is the “current, as well as future CM, after elections” to a raucous applause. Shah also claimed that the Congress billboards are giving credit to Sonia Gandhi for developmental works actually done by the BJP.
Patel and Shah were followed by a 3 km-long roadshow through the Ghatlodia Assembly constituency in Ahmedabad, as he inaugurated the party’s new office on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway before filing his nomination from the seat.
Appealing for votes from Ghatlodia residents, Shah, during a public address at Prabhat Chowk, said while Patel’s victory is certain, it should be made into a lesson for the Congress.
“It should be such a grand victory that next time, it takes Congress two-and-a-half months to find a candidate. Ghatlodia residents, leave aside questions like whether Bhupendrabhai visited (your area) or not, met (you) or not. With folded hands, I appeal to vote for BJP and mark a victory with a massive margin. This should be your certificate for India’s development work that started from Gujarat. It is Gujarat from where Modi started development of the entire country. Gujarat led the way for security, peace, prosperity and development in the country,” Shah said in his address.
Taking a dig at the Congress, he said, “Congress has come in a new attire. Every five years they come. They have put up boards saying ‘kaam bole chhe (our work speaks)’, but I want to ask you—they have not been in government since 1990, then how and from where have you done the work? Sonia Gandhi’s photos are put up on works done by BJP, and you think Gujarat’s people will believe you? Such is your credibility, and that of Narendra Modi.”
Reiterating Bhupendra Patel as the future CM, Shah said, “Gujaratis use their brains. (They think) that if by doing one task, two targets are met, then should it be done or not? In every Assembly constituency where voters will vote, they are electing the MLA, but here you will get your MLA as well as the CM.”
“In 2022 as well, whatever calculations you want to do, you can note down with today’s date that BJP will once again win and form the government, breaking all records,” Shah added.
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Ghatlodia falls under the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, and was won by former chief minister and current Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel in 2012, by 1,10,395 votes. Bhupendra Patel had won it by 1,17,750 votes in 2017, which was the highest victory margin in the state in 2017.
Shah also reminded Ghatlodia voters of communal riots before the BJP formed the government in 1995.
“I want to remind Gujarat’s public of the decade between 1985 and 1995, when the state reported communal riots every day. Out of 365 days in a year, the state was under curfew for 250 days. But today, ask a 20-year-old about communal riots, and he would not know. I’ve seen with my own eyes one ambulance after another bringing in riot-afflicted people to the V.S. Hospital. It was Gujarat’s public that decided to give BJP a chance,” he stated.
Shah also listed the Centre’s achievements under the BJP, like Ayodhya temple, abrogation of Article 370, law against triple talaq, surgical strikes, among other development projects in Gujarat such as 24-hour rural electricity, claiming that in every sphere—education, health, panchayati raj and infrastructure—it was ‘Gujarat Model’ that had led to the development.
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