Previous govts only paid lip service to the poor: Amit Shah

Lucknow: BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday accused previous governments of merely paying lip service to the poor and said it was only his party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who ensured "antodaya".

"Governments in the past used to pay only lip service to the poor. They did nothing for their uplift. But the Modi government has adopted antodaya (serving the last man in the queue) effectively," he said at an event where collection of books based on the life of Pt Deendayal Upadhya was unveiled.

Shah said BJP was seriously involved in welfare and uplift of the downtrodden unlike other parties, "which treated them just as a votebank".

He said Jan Dhan and Ujjwala schemes were the real examples of antodaya.

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Lucknow Mayor Dinesh Sharam and BJP Vice President and in charge of UP Om Mathur were in attendance at the event.