Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah on Sunday in Lucknow asked National Democratic Alliance (NDA) workers to pledge to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi the PM again in 2024. Mr. Shah was addressing a ‘Jan-Swabhiman Divas’ programme on the 74th birth anniversary of the late Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel.
Mr. Shah said the BJP and Apna Dal had “freed the State from the disruptive forces”, hinting at the Samajwadi Party (SP). “BJP and Apna Dal together fought and won four polls. Now, the State is free from the disruptive forces,” he said at the event organised by the Apna Dal (S), a BJP ally, held at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan. The event saw sizeable participation of the smaller partner’s core support base — the Kurmi Other Backward Class (OBC) community.
Mr. Shah said the present Union government had done a lot of work for the OBCs and listed the steps taken to empower them while focusing on increasing their representation in the Central government and in Parliament. “The NDA government headed by Modi-ji consists of the maximum number of Ministers from Backward Classes, the highest since Independence. By giving constitutional status to the Backward Classes Commission, the Prime Minister empowered the backward community. In the last nine years, a lot of work has been done for the backward classes,” he added.
