Vijay Rupani on Wednesday said that Congress will not be able to win a single Lok Sabha seat from the state as the BJP will repeat the 2014 general elections results by winning all 26 seats in 2019.
He said the Congress, which gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a tough fight in the 2017 Assembly polls, would not be able to get a single seat from the state.
"After the 2014 elections, it was only Gujarat where a state government repeated it's tenure," Rupani said.
"Despite the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Patidar and Dalit agaitations across the state, the BJP was able to prove its metal. People have neglected the Congress and chosen the saffron party everywhere," he said.
"Even the vote percentage of the BJP has increased."
Rupani also pointed out that the trader community of the state stood by the BJP during elections despite the Congress describing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as 'Gabbar Singh Tax'.
"Despite the central government's move of demonetisation and implementation of the GST, the trader community supported the BJP. We won by good numbers in Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad."
When pointed out that the farmers were not backing the BJP in the rural areas, the Chief Minister said: "Even after 22 years of BJP's rule in the state, farmers have full faith in the government."
"We have given maximum of minimum support prices (MSP) for their produce to support them," he said.
Asked about the Dalit atrocities in his state, Rupani said: "We have taken immediate action whenever such a complaint has came."
"After the Rajkot incident, the state government swung into action and arrested four people responsible for the incident.
"We also announced compensation of Rs 8 lakh to the kin of the family and took all actions against the culprits," the Chief Minister said.
Replying to a question about Congress President Rahul Gandhi attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over any issue in the state, the BJP leader said: "He has not matured yet. It shows his immaturity. He is doing so to improve his image. But he shall be exposed soon."
Rupani, who also launched the Dial 108 boat ambulance service in the state, said: "Today we are introducing the boat ambulances in the coastal areas to provide proper medical services to the people residing there."
He also said that the state government is fully committed to providing better health services to the people of the state and so it has announced to give an assistance of Rs 50,000 to the accident victims.
"If a person meets with an accident in the state, the state government has announced Rs 50,000 assistance for health services. Under this scheme the accident victim only needs to be brought to any government or private hospital."
"This has been done to save the crucial platinum hour for treatment, thus a passerby or any relative need not bother about the money before admitting the victim into any nearest hospital," he said.
He also said that this scheme is not only limited to the people of Gujarat but to any citizens of the country and to people of any country who meet with an accident in the state.
Discussing the Dial 108 ambulance services, Rupani said: "We have over 550 ambulances. And we have given the operations of these ambulances to private operators to ensure proper services."
"The maximum response time of the 108 ambulance service in urban areas is 14 minutes, while in rural areas is 20 minutes," he added.
(Anand Singh was in Gujarat on the request of the state government. He can be contacted at anand.s@ ians.in)
--IANS
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