Choice between those who constructed Ram Temple and those who opened fire at Ram bhakts: Shah

Maharajganj/Deoria (UP): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that this Lok Sabha election is a contest between those who constructed the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and those who opened fire at Ram bhakts.

At a poll meeting in Deoria in support of BJP candidate Shashank Mani Tripathi, he accused the opposition of stalling the construction of the Ram Temple for over 70 years and said the temple could only be built because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“This election is between the one who constructed Ram Temple and those who opened fire on Ram Bhakts,” he said referring to the firing at karsevaks in 1990 when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

Earlier at a rally in Maharajganj, Shah took a jibe at the Samajwadi Party and Congress, saying they have decided to blame electronic voting machines for their defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

“The counting is on June 4. In the afternoon the two ‘shehzade’ (Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav) will hold a press conference and say we lost the election because EVM was defective,” he said.

“Modi has crossed 310 seats in five rounds. Rahul baba you will not get even 40 seats and the other ‘shehzade’ (Akhilesh Yadav) will just get four seats,” he said at the rally in support of party candidate Pankaj Chaudhary.

He said the opposition does not have a PM candidate and say they will have five PMs in five years.

“This is not a general store but a nation of 130 crore people. Can such a PM work?” he asked.

Targeting the opposition, he said Congress leaders say that Pakistan has an atom bomb but BJP people are not scared of atom bombs.

“Pakistan occupied Kashmir is and will remain part of India and we will take it back,” he asserted.

Referring to the Sahara scam, Shah claimed it occurred when the opposition was in power.

“Arre Akhilesh (Akhilesh Yadav) the scam took place in your government. Modi ji started the process of refund,” he said.

Sahara group firms were accused of circumventing regulations with Ponzi schemes. The group has denied the charges.

Seeking to strike a chord with farmers, Shah said, “It is the death anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh today. Narendra Modi did the work of giving him Bharat Ratna and gave respect to all the farmers of Uttar Pradesh.”

The senior BJP leader also accused the previous governments of shutting down sugar mills and promised that a new mega sugar mill will be constructed in Maharajganj if the BJP comes to power again.

Claiming that terrorist attacks were rampant in the Congress government, Shah said at the rally in Deoria, “When Narendra Modi came to power, we did surgical strike and air strike and hit Pakistan in their home and ended terrorism.”

The senior BJP leader also spoke on the issue of reservation and accused the opposition parties of trying to end reservation for SC/ST/OBC in order to appease its vote bank.

“I want to give a Modi guarantee, no one can lay hands on the reservation of SC/ST and OBC till even a single MP of BJP is in Parliament. These people have reduced the reservation of backward classes for appeasement politics,” he said.

He also praised Chief Minister Yogi Aditayanth and said, “Yogi ji has cleared the mosquitoes with cleanliness and the mafia from Uttar Pradesh with his style.”

Polling in Maharajganj and Deoria will be held on June 1. (PTI)