Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday asked BJP workers to resolve to give the Narendra Modi government a third term at the Centre with more than 400 seats, asserting that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls were about making India a superpower and the world's third-largest economy.
Addressing about 23,000 booth-level workers of the party at Khajuraho, the Union minister also claimed "the Congress means corruption and corruption means Congress".
Opposition INDIA bloc partners Samajwadi Party and Congress have announced a tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls in MP, with the Akhilesh Yadav-led outfit set to contest in Khajuraho, bordering Uttar Pradesh, and support the grand old party in the remaining 28 constituencies in the state.
Shah said the Congress during its 10-year tenure (between 2004 and 2014) had indulged in scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore.
"Resolve to form the Modi-led government at Centre again by winning more than 400 seats. The upcoming Lok Sabha polls are for making Bharat a superpower and the world's third largest economy under Modi's leadership," he told his party workers.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won from Khajuraho with a margin of about 4.90 lakh votes.
The Modi government has completed ten years, but the opposition leaders can't level allegations of a single penny on him, Shah said.
Hailing the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya under the Modi government, Shah said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi used to take swipes at him by saying the saffron party claims it will build the temple but will not give people the date of construction.
"The temple has been built under the Modi government. The BJP fulfils every commitment made to the public," asserted Shah, considered his party's key strategist.
The top BJP leader said the Congress dragged its feet for years over the Ayodhya temple, but Modi fulfilled the desire of crores of Lord Ram’s devotees by performing the ‘bhumi pujan’ of the shrine and then leading its consecration ceremony.
He said that Congress and its allies have always insulted and abused Sanatana Dharma.
Congress and its allies tried to coin the term “bhagwa terrorism” and they always humiliated Bharatiya culture, he said.
“Not only in India, Modi ji has returned recently by inaugurating a grand temple in UAE. Congress people are not tired of humiliating Sanatana Dharma."
Giving credit for the party's victory to booth workers, Shah said that the BJP won 27 out of 29 Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh in 2014 and 28 segments in 2019. He urged them to ensure the BJP’s victory on all the seats this time to cross the target of 400 seats in Parliament.
The target of 400 seats can't be possible without the booth workers, he said and praised the party organisation in Madhya Pradesh.
The BJP fulfils its promises, Shah said citing issues like abrogation of Article 370 from Kashmir, one-rank, one pension to retired army men, abolishment of triple talaq, 33 per cent reservation to the women in Lok Sabha polls and completion of various temple corridors.
Listing out achievements of the party, Shah said the BJP regime at the Centre has ensured 5 kg of free ration monthly to more than 80 crore poor people, provided tapped water to 14 crore families, and given Rs 6,000 annual assistance to 11 crore farmers.
The next five years will be the time to lay the foundation of a “great Bharat”, he said.
Congress let “Alia Malia Jamalia” from Pakistan enter India and carry out attacks and return but Manmohan Singh (then prime minister) didn't pay heed, he said.
Shah said that Pakistan made a mistake and launched attacks in Uri and Pulwama. Within ten days, the Modi government carried out a surgical strike and entered the homes of terrorists and killed them, he said.
The Union minister said that the Modi government has carried out several welfare works for farmers and made record purchases of wheat and paddy.
"We have solved the problems of farmers one by one. Because of such works, Congress is not visible in the political landscape of the country," he said.
Shah said that the Congress government had given Rs 1.99 lakh crore to Madhya Pradesh in ten years while the Modi government gave Rs 7.74 lakh crore in nine years.
Besides, projects worth Rs 5.5 lakh crore were given and BJP tried to transform a “BIMARU state into a developed one”, he added.
Earlier in the day in Gwalior, Shah asked the BJP workers to strive for polling of 370 additional votes in each booth, compared to the last general polls, to achieve the seat target in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
He was speaking to nearly 400 leaders and workers of the booth management committee of Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior-Chambal cluster comprising four Lok Sabha seats - Morena, Bhind, Guna and Gwalior.
