Coalition govt will be run by dealers, not leaders: Shah
POLL MODE BJP chief says party has zero tolerance towards terrorism and only Modi can provide a strong govt
JAIPUR: BJP national president Amit Shah on Monday said only Prime Minister Narendra Modi can provide a strong leadership and if a coalition government wins the 2019 elections, it will be run by dealers and not leaders.
Launching the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign at a meeting of party leaders, Shakti Kend r a c o nve ne r s a nd b o o t h in-charges here, Shah asked them to take a vow to bring the BJP back to power at the Centre.
At the beginning of the programme, the gathering observed a two-minute silence in memory of the CRPF soldiers who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack.
Shah said, “People are angry and upset.” He assured that the BJP government will not let the sacrifice of the soldiers go in vain and the defence forces will give a befitting reply at the right time.
He said the BJP has adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism and the Modi government had given the biggest defence budget since independence.
On the 2019 elections, he said, “The country wants a strong government, which only prime minister Narendra Modi can give. The coalition does not have a leader. A coalition government will be run by dealers, not leaders.”
He added, “Only the BJP has a leader. If the BJP forms the government, then it will be run under the leadership of Modi. The country does not want a government run by dealers. ”
Shah said 2019 election is important to the BJP to increase its reach in the entire country. “After the 2014 election, the party increased its reach to newer areas and spread all over north India. In the 2019 elections the BJP will unfurl its flag in Bengal and Orissa,” he said.
After 2019, Shah said, the BJP has to find a foothold in the south and that can happen only when BJP returns to power with a full majority.
Shah said the 2019 election is also a battle of ideologies. “On one hand you have the BJP which has an ideology, programme and policies and is working for the welfare of the poor. And on the other you have a coalition that is only interested in grabbing power. Its only aim is to remove Modi. Can such a weak coalition take the country on the path of development?”
Development in the state has come to a stop. The deputy chief minister is busy trying to become chief minister and the chief minister is trying to save his seat. And people are suffering in the fight between the two.
AMIT SHAH, BJP president
He listed the Centre’s schemes, such as providing bank accounts, toilets, electricity, gas cylinders to the people, saying Congress had not thought about the common people for six decades.
Taking a jibe at the chief minister Ashok Gehlot and deputy CM Sachin Pilot, he said, “Development in the state has come to a stop. The deputy chief minister is busy trying to become chief minister and the chief minister is trying to save his seat. And people are suffering in the fight between the two.”
“You have just formed the government, what is the hurry. But they are encouraging agitations. If the chief minister is in trouble only then they will become (CM). This is Congress culture.”
Reacting to Shah’s comments on infighting, Congress spokesperson Pratap Singh Khachari- yawas s ai d t he BJP has no achievements or issues and so is targeting the Congress. “People are going to assess the BJP government on its achievements, not on what Gehlot and Pilot are doing or who will lead the gathbandhan.”
He said the difference between the BJP and Congress is that the BJP government has started working in the last year of its tenure while the Gehlot government in Rajasthan has started working as soon as it came to power.
Thanking party workers, Vasundhara Raje said, “We did not win but we did not let the Congress have an easy win. It was due to your hard work.” She said the workers should tell people that the BJP government had delivered on its promises while work had come to a stop under the Congress government.
“If people did not love us they would have brought us to the same state as the Congress when they were reduced to 21 seats. But with 73 seats you can hold your head high,” she said.
Shah said said all world leaders denounce terrorism but no other leader has the political will that Modi has to deal with and give a befitting reply to terrorism.
He said the BJP government has f ramed a t i me- t able t o strengthen, modernise, provide weapons, rights and motivation to the defence forces and the government has already made a positive start in this direction.