Amit Shah rules out imposing age-limit rule in BJP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Amit Shah rules out imposing age-limit rule in BJP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Hindustan Times, Bhopal | ByRanjan and Neeraj Santoshi
Aug 18, 2017 10:49 PM IST

The announcement is likely to come as a relief to several party veterans who have been allegedly sidelined in the party because of their old age.

BJP national president Amit Shah on Friday ruled out possibility of imposing any age bar for allocation of tickets for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, an announcement which is likely to come as a relief to several party veterans.

BJPsupporters welcome BJP national president Amit Shah on his arrival in Bhopal for a three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh on Friday.(PTI Photo)
BJPsupporters welcome BJP national president Amit Shah on his arrival in Bhopal for a three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh on Friday.(PTI Photo)

Many party stalwarts, including L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, are sidelined allegedly because of their growing age, prompting another senior party leader Yashwant Sinha to claim in 2015 that present BJP leadership had declared leaders above 75 as “brain dead.”

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Last year BJP dropped two ministers from the Madhya Pradesh government on the ground they have crossed 75 years, which sparked speculation about an unstated age-restriction rule being imposed in the party.

Setting to rest all such speculations, Shah during informal talks with newspapers editors and other senior journalists in Bhopal said party had no intention of pursuing such policy.

The BJP chief is on a three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh as part of his 110-day nationwide tour to galvanize the party ahead of 2019 general elections.

In reply to another question, the BJP president also reiterated he had no intention of joining Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.

Shah’s election to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat triggered speculation about him joining the Union ministry. He said he opted for the Upper house of the parliament as his tenure as an MLA was about to end as Gujarat will go to polls later this year.

“I won’t join the central cabinet,” Shah categorically said.

The BJP chief also announced that chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would be the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.

During the interactions, Shah lauded demonetisation of high-value currency notes last year and recent introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (TAX) by the central government.

It was because of the demonetisation that there was an increase of more than 90 lakh income tax payee in the country, he claimed, adding the GST was also introduced in the greater interest of the country.

Later, speaking at a seminar on ‘Naya Bharat Manthan-Sankalp Se Siddhi’, Shah claimed his party was not in politics for power.

It came into politics to correct and provide alternatives to Nehruvian policies, which were influenced by western world and not rooted in India’s ancient civilizational ethos.

At a time when the Congress was at its peak, people like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and some RSS leaders realised this and founded the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which eventually led to the formation of BJP, that has now over 11 crore members, becoming the world’s largest political party, he said.

“Jan Sangh was founded not to achieve power, to become a prime minister or a chief minister. It was not even conceivable at that time when Congress was at its peak. But difference was that the Congress wanted to shun old values and create a new India, while Jan Sangh leaders wanted to reconstruct India keeping old Indian civilizational ethos at the core. The Congress felt old Indian values were outdated,” he claimed.

Shah focused his nearly one-hour-long speech on comparative study regarding why BJP was better than other political parties that according to him are mostly dynastic.

He elaborated his arguments on three points-- internal democracy in a party, whether the party is based on core principles/values or just rhetoric aimed at glorifying its leaders and delivery or governance.

“It is because of the internal democracy in BJP that a poor political worker like me who would paste party posters in 1980s has now become the president of world’s largest political party,” he said.

“This has become possible because our party is based on principles and values, unlike most of other parties, except for the Communist party”, he said.

Shah further claimed that whenever the BJP comes into power, the pace of development fastens. “The growth rate improved during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure, then it declined during economist PM Manmohan Singh’s time and again showed growth during Narendra Modi’s last three years”, he said.

Unveiling 'Elections 2024: The Big Picture', a fresh segment in HT's talk show 'The Interview with Kumkum Chadha', where leaders across the political spectrum discuss the upcoming general elections. Watch Now!

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