BJP does not indulge in caste politics like Congress, JMM; thinks only for the poor: Amit Shah in Jharkhand

CHATRA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday addressed a public rally in Jharkhand's Chatra and said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has never indulged in caste-politics like the Congress and the JMM and sees only one caste, which is the poor.

Amit Shah's address came as today is the last day for election campaigning in Jharkhand for the first phase of the election, scheduled to take place on November 30. The state assembly election in Jharkhand will take place in five phases with the counting of the votes scheduled for December 23.

The Union Minister said that the JMM, Congress and the RJD are fighting the state Assembly election in an alliance. "I would like to ask Hemant Babu (Soren) what was the stand of Congress when the youth of Jharkhand were fighting for a separate state."

Slamming Congress for not being able to create the separate state of Jharkhand, Amit Shah said that many people were martyred in their efforts demanding a separate state.

"Jharkhand was founded by the respected Atal ji after the formation of the BJP government at the Centre. Atal ji made Jharkhand and Narendra Modi ji and Raghubar Das ji have done the work of taking Jharkhand forward," Shah said.

Speaking at the election rally, the BJP president said that Jharkhand had witnessed large scale corruption during the previous governments but there is not a single charge of graft against the Raghubar Das government in the state.

Amit Shah also lauded the efforts made by Raghubar Das's government to uproot the widespread Naxalism in the state and said that when the BJP government was not in the state, even a wedding procession would not pass as soon as evening struck. "However, now all that fear of Naxals has been vanquished as people know that they are safe," he added.

The Home minister claimed that the law and order situation has improved in the state and the "Raghubar Das government has buried Naxalism 20-feet under the earth in Jharkhand.

Highlighting BJP government's achievements in the state, Shah said, "In the past five years only, the BJP government has set up industries in Jharkhand, laid a network of roads, provided houses to the poor, provided toilets, provided assistance to farmers and gave many schemes to the people of Jharkhand."

Amit Shah added that the Modi government has given constitutional status to the Backward Classes Commission. "We have said in our manifesto that if we make the government with absolute majority, the first thing we will do is creating a committee to give maximum reservation to the OBC society."

Speaking on abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, Shah launched an attack on the Congress and said that Articles 370 and 35A were retained by the Congress for votebank politics. By revoking this article, PM Modi has launched a war against terrorism in the nation, Shah added.