Congress-NCP playing votebank politics: Shah

■ Praises Modi for abrogation of Article 370, 35A

The entire world has realised that if one Indian jawan is martyred, 10 enemies would be killed — Amit Shah Home minister

Union home minister Amit Shah Thursday continued to stress on the abrogation of Article 370 in state poll campaign rallies. Addressing rallies in Sangli and Solapur, Mr Shah accused the Congress and NCP of opposing the move “for their politics of vote bank and appeasement”.

On Thursday, Mr Shah was in the Solapur and Sangli districts of Maharashtra to address poll rallies. In the rally at Jat taluka, the BJP president lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for strengthening the image of India across the globe. “Mr Modi has fulfilled Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s dream of an integrated India by abrogating Articles 370 and 35A. Mr Modi has done a great job,” he said.

In the same speech, he accused the Congress and NCP for opposing the move. “I want to ask Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar why they opposed the proposal when the entire country wanted Kashmir to be an integral part of India… Because they wanted to play the politics of vote bank and appeasement…” he said.

Mr Shah dismissed the claims of Mr Gandhi and the Congress that “rivers of blood” would flow in Kashmir. On the contrary, Kashmir was peaceful and “not a single bullet” had to be fired, he asserted.

“These people ran a false campaign in the country and across the world following the scrapping of Article 370, saying it would lead to problems. Mr Modi went to the UN and the entire world is standing with him on the issue, while Pakistan stands isolated in the world,” he said.

Under Mr Modi’s watch, the national security has strengthened, Mr Shah said, adding that “the entire world has realised that if one Indian jawan is martyred, 10 enemies would be killed”.

He also accused Rahul Gandhi of siding with the “tukde tukde gang” as he referred to the JNU sloganeering episode.

Later, Mr Shah made the announcement at a rally in Tuljapur, a town in Osmanabad district, that infiltrators would be made to leave country and the NRC would be implemented for this purpose.