Addressing two separate election rallies in the insurgency-affected Bastar region of poll-bound Chhattisgarh on Thursday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the people have to choose between a Congress government that encouraged Naxalism and a BJP government that eliminated it.
Mr. Shah also countered the allegations of the ruling Congress in the State that the BJP-led Centre was going to privatise the newly commissioned Nagarnar Steel Plant in Bastar.
Addressing the Parivartan Sankalp Mahasabha’ rallies in Jagdalpur and Kondagaon, the Home Minister urged people to bring the BJP to power in the State, promising that his party will rid the entire State of the Naxal menace.
Editorial | Forest pitch: On the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections
Accusing the Congress of encouraging Naxalism, he said Naxal violence had come down under the Modi government. “In nine years of the Modi government, incidents of (Naxal) violence declined by 52 per cent, deaths (in Naxal violence) came down by 70 per cent, civilian deaths decreased by 68 per cent, while the (number of) Naxal-affected districts declined by 62 per cent,” he said, adding that “any death – be it of a common citizen, someone from the police or one of the insurgents, it is always a case of a tribal dying”.
He also accused the Congress of corruption and added that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had turned Chhattisgarh into an “ATM for the Congress”. Highlighting the development initiatives taken by the Centre and the funds sanctioned by it, Mr. Shah said that if the Congress returned to power in Chhattisgarh, the money sent from the Centre for the State’s development would be diverted to Delhi through the ‘ATM’ of the Congress.
“Today, I have come to urge you to elect the BJP once again in the State. We will hang upside down those who have embezzled the money of tribals by committing scams,” said Mr. Shah.
Polling for the 90 Assembly seats in Chhattisgarh is scheduled to be held in two phases on November 7 and 17. Bastar will vote in the first phase. Votes will be counted on December 3.
Referring to the counting date, Mr. Shah said the people of Chhattisgarh will celebrate Deepavali thrice – once on the actual day of the festival, second when the BJP will be elected to power on December 3, and third when the construction of Ram temple (in Ayodhya) will be completed in January, as Chhattisgarh was Lord Ram’s nanihal (the place of the deity’s maternal grandparents).
