Kerala polls: Amit Shah flays UDF, UPA governments

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Thiruvananthapuram: BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday continued his tirade against the Congress over the AgustaWestland chopper deal and asked former defence Minister A K Antony to reveal at whose behest certain clauses in the agreement with the company were changed.

Addressing a series of election meetings in Kerala in support of BJP, which is going all out to make its maiden entry in the state assembly in the May 16 elections, he also referred to solar scams and bar bribery charges and said it was time to weed out the 'corrupt' UDF led by Congress.

Besides, he questioned the Congress' political ideology pointing to its tie-up with the Left in West Bengal while fighting the same in Kerala and said party chief Sonia Gandhi owed an explanation to the people.

Referring to the chopper deal, Shah wanted Antony to reveal why the field trials of the VVIP choppers had been shifted to Italy from India.

"Why was the trials shifted to Italy and at whose behest? On whose request the clauses in the agreement were changed", he asked at a poll meeting at Ranni in Pathnamthitta district.

Targeting Antony, who had stated that BJP had a 'hidden agenda', Shah said "we do not have any hidden agenda. What we do have is open and transparent agenda."

BJP had only one open agenda and that was to dump both the Congress-led UDF and CPM-headed LDF "in the Arabian sea", he said, projecting his party as the alternative in the state where the two fronts had alternately held power.

Addressing a meeting at Manimala in Kottayam District, Shah mentioned about the chopper deal and said 'tainted image' of the previous Congress-led UPA government would "become more clear with more revelations on the deal in the coming days."

The BJP chief alleged that during the ten-year UPA rule there was corruption to the tune of Rs 12 lakh crore and claimed there was not even a single corruption case against the NDA government which came to power two years ago.

Attacking UDF and LDF, Shah said both fronts were following 'vote bank politics'. "BJP does not indulge in politics of appeasement," he said.

Listing out the various corruptions cases, including solar scam and bar bribery case, that hit UDF government in the five years, Shah said there was corruption everywhere.

"It is time we weed out the corrupt UDF government," he said.