BJP chief Amit Shah. (File)
Alleging that “Naxalites ran the government” in Chhattisgarh under the Congress, BJP president Amit Shah on Friday said that the BJP government headed by Raman Singh has uprooted Left-Wing Extremism from the state over the last 15 years.
Addressing BJP’s booth-level workers at Ambikapur as part of a whirlwind two-day programme across the state beginning Friday, Shah asked them to tell people that the state will again be at the mercy of Maoists if the Congress emerges victorious in next month’s Assembly polls.
“If the Congress government comes, then the government will again run at the mercy of Naxalites. If the Raman Singh government returns, the few (Maoists) remaining will also flee Chhattisgarh.” Maoist terror in Chhattisgarh was a big thread in Shah’s speeches on Friday as he targeted the Congress government in the state between 2000 and 2003 under Ajit Jogi, who is fighting these elections with an alliance between his Chhattisgarh Janata Congress and the BSP.
Shah said: “There was Jogi-sahib. (Under him) workers were beaten up, but no work was done for tribals and the poor. Naxalites ran the government (then) — roads could not be built, electricity could not be provided, a pipeline could not be laid, schools couldn’t be built, and the state cowered under the influence of Naxalites.”
In the 2013 elections, the people elected Raman Singh, he said. “After he became Chief Minister, the the BJP government led by Raman Singh has uprooted Naxalites in 15 years.”
Bringing up the topic of the recent arrest of activists, accused of Maoist links by the Maharashtra government, Shah repeatedly called them “urban Maoists” and said, “Paanch urban Maovadi jinke laptop ke andar se mortar khareedne ki soochnaien mili, hathyaar khareedne ki soochnayein mili, Pradhan Mantri ki hatya karne ka patra mila, ye paancho urban Maoivaadiyon ko jaise hi BJP sarkaar ne pakda, ye Rahul-baba aur company hae tauba karne lagi (Five urban Maoists from whose laptops the police found information on purchase of mortars and weapons, and letters that reveal a plot to kill the Prime Minister — the moment the BJP government caught them, Rahul Gandhi and company raised a hue and cry).”
After Ambikapur, Shah went to Bilaspur later in the afternoon and addressed booth workers as well as lawyers from the district.