STATE TIMES NEWS
Hyderabad: Top BJP leader Amit Shah on Saturday asserted Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to lead the country post 2024 Lok Sabha polls and hit out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for claiming the PM was seeking votes for making Shah his successor, citing the 75 years age ‘rule’.
There was nothing written in the BJP’s constitution on any such age ceiling, Shah told reporters here. There was no confusion in the BJP over the matter.
Shah was responding to Kejriwal’s claim that Modi was asking for votes for the Union Home Minister to make him PM as the prime minister would turn 75 next year.
“I would like to tell Arvind Kejriwal and company and the whole Indi alliance, Modi becomes 75, there is no need for you to feel happy. It is not written anywhere in BJP’s constitution. Modi will complete the term and will continue to lead the country. There is no confusion in BJP on this,” Shah told reporters here.
To a related query, Shah said, “His (Kejriwal) base is that Modi ji will be changed. I have made it clear that Modi will not be changed. At the root, why did he say that? Modi ji will be changed after 75. It has been decided not to change”.
Kejriwal had charged that Modi is asking for votes for Shah.
“These people ask INDIA bloc about their (PM) face. I ask BJP who will be their PM? Modi ji is turning 75 on September 17 next year. He had made the rule that people aged 75 will be retired. They retired LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan,” Kejriwal said.
“He (Modi) will retire next year. He is seeking votes for making Amit Shah the prime minister. Will Shah fulfill Modiji’s guarantee?” the CM, out on bail in the Delhi Excise Policy scam, asked.
Further, Shah launched a scathing attack on Congress and its leaders, alleging that due to the fear of Pakistan having a nuclear bomb, the grand old party wants to give up India’s rights over Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
On Saturday, Shah addressed election rallies at Vikarabad and Nagarkurnool in Telangana and later a press conference here on the last day of campaigning for the May 13 Lok Sabha polls in the state.
He also said if Kejriwal thinks that Supreme Court’s interim bail is a clean chit, then his understanding with regard to law is poor.
The home minister also expressed confidence that the BJP would emerge as the largest party in South India in terms of Lok Sabha seats.
The BJP is confident of winning more than 10 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, he said.
In his address at a rally at Vikarabad, Shah recalled that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had conducted nuclear tests at Pokhran on this day in 1998 and made the country a nuclear power.
The Congress does not have the courage to conduct surgical strikes and airstrikes, he alleged.
He said PM Modi did surgical strikes and air strikes within 10 days after Pakistan terrorists attacked the country and “finished them”.
Referring to the reported comments of Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar and that of National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Pakistan having an atom bomb, the home minister said he would like to ask Rahul Gandhi if PoK would be given to the neighbouring country because of it possessing a nuclear bomb.
“As long as BJP is there, it cannot happen” and PoK belongs to India and we will take it, he said.
“They don’t feel shame. Due to fear of an atom bomb, they want to give up our rights over PoK. But you don’t worry, Modi ji is going to be Prime Minister again and Pakistan’s bullets will be replied to with cannon,” Shah said.
PM Modi has ended terror and naxalism in the country, he said.
Referring to Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s comments on surgical strikes, he asked, “Revanth Reddy, where did you keep your mind? You kept it in Italy?”.
Reddy on Friday claimed an intelligence failure in preventing the Pulwama incident of 2019 when a terror strike on Indian troops left about 40 CRPF personnel dead.
Attacking the ruling Congress and BRS in Telangana, he alleged that the ‘steering’ of the government always lay with AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi.
The four per cent Muslim reservation introduced in Telangana robs the quotas of SC, ST and OBCs. Whenever BJP comes to power, it will end Muslim reservations, he said.
On BRS president Chandrasekhar Rao’s reported comments that a system of contest between regional parties like in Tamil Nadu should be in place in Telangana, Shah said KCR has the right to talk about regional parties but people would decide.
On CM Revanth Reddy’s allegation that investments in Telangana are being stopped, the senior BJP leader said he does not think anyone would come to invest given the way he (Reddy) is running the government. Revanth Reddy could have met the PM if there were any problems “regarding investments”, he said.
Attacking the Congress government, he charged that the only promise fulfilled was the one made to the party high command to provide funds from Telangana to fight elections all over the country.
Dismissing Congress allegations that the BJP would end reservations if it gets 400 seats, he said the Modi government had a full majority for 10 years, but it did not use to end quotas but to abolish article 370 and others.
“The sin of editing my video and presenting it in a wrong way happened here,” he said referring to the case registered by the Delhi police with regard to the doctored video of Shah circulated on social media.
At the rally, Shah asked Revanth Reddy to tell people, if he has the courage, whether he would end Muslim reservations.