Target should be at least 20 seats in Bengaluru, Shah tells party workers

BENGALURU: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday exhorted BJP workers to ensure that the party wins at least 20 of the 28 Assembly seats in Bengaluru.

Speaking at a booth-level workers’ convention at the Palace Grounds here, Amit Shah took the workers to task as he began his speech when they did not respond properly to the ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogan. “What has happened to you? Where is your voice”? he thundered. Following this, the workers responded with a loud chant.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his cabinet colleagues accompanied the Home Minister.

Addressing the convention, he told the party workers to ensure a victory in at least 20 seats in Bengaluru so that the party can form a government on its own. “Friday’s rally in Mandya was the biggest in South Karnataka”, he noted.

Continuing his tirade against the Congress and the JD(S), he said the two parties will come closer as elections near. “You have seen their administration and the successful government run by B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai. Karnataka is the gateway for the BJP to the south and the party has to be strengthened in the southern states. I hadn’t seen such a massive rally in Mandya and I congratulate Nalin Kumar Kateel for it”, he said.

Shah said the BJP has registered massive wins in Gujarat, Uttharakhand, Manipur and Goa and Modi has smashed all records in Gujarat where the Congress faced a humiliating defeat. Stressing that the party will not have any tie-ups for the upcoming Assembly polls, he launched a sharp attack on JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda and Congress leader Siddaramaiah.

A section of the crowd at the convention.

“The JD(S) will talk of an alliance with the BJP when elections are approaching and if it gets votes, it will align with the Congress, which is already linked with the tukde-tukde gang. Journalists talk about a triangular contest, but the BJP will come back to power on its own strength and give a corruption-free government with no dynastic politics”, he remarked. While Modi is building the Ram temple, Tipu Sultan is being made a hero here, he taunted the Congress.

For the first time, launching a direct attack on Deve Gowda, Shah said, “You were Prime Minister and also Chief Minister. But what did you do? And what did you not do? As for the BJP, our Yuva Morcha workers will tell you what our government has done”, he charged.

Targeting KPCC president D K Shivakumar, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, he asked whether they will save the country from the likes of the PFI. “Can they be trusted to keep the country safe? They are scared of their vote banks. But the BJP does not fear vote bank politics as national security is prime for us”, he said.

“The Congress and the JD(S) are two faces of the same coin and Kumaraswamy is in the Congress’ lap. We will rid Karnataka of corruption, dynastic politics and caste politics”, he stressed.

Amit Shah directly attacked the Congress and JD(S) leaders.

Impressed by the enthusiasm of the party workers, Shah walked up to them from the dais and greeted them. Earlier, the Bengaluru unit of the party felicitated him with a statuette of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda.

Later in the evening, Amit Shah visited the Adamya Chetana Trust in V V Puram where he was introduced to the functioning of the trust by its chairperson Tejaswini Ananthkumar. He also visited the midday meal centre, visited the stalls and released a booklet. However, he did not take part in the Ananth Seva Utsav.

He also visited the Adichunchanagiri Mutt in Vijayanagar where he was greeted with Vedic chants by students. He also held discussons with Mutt seer Nirmalanandanatha Swami for about 45 minutes and sought his cooperation in the upcoming election.