E-Paper
‘Cong, RJD want voting rights for infiltrators, NDA will expel them’
Amit Shah accused Rahul Gandhi and Lalu Prasad of protecting infiltrators in Bihar, asserting that the BJP-led NDA aims to remove them in upcoming elections.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD chief Lalu Prasad were trying to protect infiltrators in Bihar by getting voting rights for them, but the BJP-led NDA will drive them out.
He claimed that Gandhi’s sole agenda in the upcoming state assembly elections is to help Lalu’s son (Tejashwi Yadav) become the next chief minister. But for the NDA, this election, is about driving infiltrators out from Bihar.
“Make the NDA win with a two-thirds majority, I promise you that the BJP will drive these infiltrators away from the sacred land of Bihar,” Shah said while addressing party workers in Samastipur and Araria.
He also said that the recent ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ by Gandhi was taken out to protect infiltrators and help them secure voting rights. “Rahul baba took out a Yatra here recently. The purpose was to oppose special intensive revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission, which wants to remove infiltrators’ names from voters’ list,” Shah told a gathering in Araria. Tejashwi and several other INDIA block leaders had joined Gandhi in the Yatra.
Gandhi launched the “Voter Adhikar Yatra”, covering 1,300 kilometers across 25 districts in Bihar against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. SIR has become a major political flashpoint ahead of the Bihar assembly elections scheduled for later this year. Opposition parties have staged protests in Parliament and alleged that ECI was acting at the behest of the BJP. The government has dismissed the protests and said that infiltrators cannot have the right to vote.
The BJP has repeatedly charged that the Congress was opposing SIR only to help “infiltrators”.
Shah said, “This time, the people of Bihar have to celebrate four Diwalis,” citing the roll-out of the Nitish government’s self-employment scheme for women in Bihar and the slashing of GST slabs.
“The first Diwali is to be celebrated on the day when Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya. The second Diwali was celebrated yesterday when Modiji deposited ₹10,000 each into the bank accounts of our jeevika didis. The third Diwali was to celebrate the reduction in the prices of more than 395 items after GST rates were slashed. We have to celebrate the fourth Diwali this year by forming the NDA government with more than 160 seats,” Shah said.
Shah also the state BJP headquarters in Patna and met the senior state leaders. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has been named the party in-charge for Bihar elections and national general secretary (Organization) BL Santhosh were also present at the party office.
