Lucknow, Oct 30 Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday hit out at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the two leaders deciding the contours of the SP-Congress alliance for 2027 UP polls, questioning their ability to win elections.
“Those who do not have a record of winning even a single election on their own are challenging the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Shah said about the two opposition leaders, who have been at the forefront of the opposition’s nationwide protest to demand the ouster of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Addressing the Uttar Pradesh BJP’s working committee meeting in Lucknow, the party veteran slammed the SP over the Ayodhya issue and dubbed the Congress for its “pro-Naxalism” approach in the past.
Sidestepping the impressive performance of the SP-Congress alliance in 2024 Lok Sabha polls in UP, Shah dismissed the two leaders and said both had failed to win an election after assuming leadership of their respective parties.
To make a convincing case before the cadre, Shah pitched the electoral performance of the Congress-SP alliance against that of the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stewardship, citing a series of the party’s phenomenal wins in Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar, Delhi, Assam and most notably Bengal, where the BJP won for the first time.
With party state leaders and cadres listening to him with rapt attention, Shah tasked them with ensuring a third consecutive BJP government in UP.
“Akhilesh Yadav should take note of the BJP’s electoral results in other states — its highest-ever seat tallies in Haryana and Maharashtra, the appointment of a BJP chief minister in Bihar for the first time, the party’s return to power in Delhi after three decades, a hat-trick of victories in Assam and the decimation of Mamata Banerjee’s party (TMC) in West Bengal,” Shah said.
“It is now Uttar Pradesh’s turn to elect a BJP government for a third consecutive term with a massive majority,” he said, adding that the BJP governments would get repeated for the next 30 years.
Shah also questioned the opposition SP and Congress over their ongoing protest to seek the CEC’s removal over alleged electoral malpractices.
Taking a swipe at the opposition over allegations of irregularities in electoral rolls, Shah used a cricket analogy and compared Gandhi and Yadav to a team that blames the umpire after losing a match instead of improving their performance.
Shah accused the opposition of spreading misinformation and deliberately disrupting parliamentary proceedings, alleging that its leaders neither wanted to speak in Parliament nor allowed it to function, while organising mock parliamentary proceedings outside the House.
He said the BJP was prepared to answer every question raised by the opposition on the issue.
Shah also highlighted the BJP’s strength in Parliament, saying the party currently had 240 Lok Sabha members, while the Congress’ combined tally in the 2014, 2019 and 2024 general elections did not reach that number.
He also pointed out that Modi had become the country’s prime minister for a third consecutive term and the NDA was in power in 22 states.
In a further attack on the Congress, Shah said its leaders had earlier advocated “coexistence with Naxalites”, arguing that the country should learn to live with them.
The BJP, however, could not coexist with terrorists and Naxalites, he said, claiming that the country had now become free of Naxalism.
Shah also said the government was fighting against drugs across the country and set December 31, 2029 as the deadline for completely eliminating the menace.
The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP state president Pankaj Chaudhary, and Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, among other senior party leaders.
(PTI News)
