BJP president Amit Shah Saturday lashed out at the SP-BSP alliance, alleging that it was indulging in divisive politics and pitting one caste against another for "petty political gains".
Addressing an election rally in Fatehpur, he said, "Erstwhile governments of SP and BSP would divide people on caste lines and would not focus on development. The Yogi Adityanath government and the Narendra Modi government have shifted the focus entirely to development without any caste discrimination."
Hitting out at the Congress, he said, "The biggest achievement of the Modi government is that of securing the nation against terrorism. During Sonia-Manmohan rule, terrorists used to enter Indian at will and even cut heads of our soldiers like that in case of (Lance Naik) Hemraj (Singh), without any response from then silent PM Manmohan Singh."
"After the Pulwama terror attack, Indian Air Force went deep inside Pakistan to Balakot and killed terrorists and destroyed their bases. Modiji has a strong will to take strong decisions for the security of the country," Shah said.
Sonia Gandhi was the president of the Congress when it governed the country from 2004 to 2014.
Taking on the Congress for promising to remove the anti-sedition law if it comes to power, the BJP president asked who the party and its followers were trying to protect.
"Who do you want to protect? When anti-India slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' were shouted, you stood with them in the name of freedom of speech. Such people will be jailed as long as the BJP is there," he said.
Exuding confidence that Narendra Modi will return as the prime minister, Shah said people seem to have made up their minds to vote for the BJP.
Showering praise on Modi, the BJP chief said, "Modiji is the man the country had been waiting for 70 years...for development to take place in real sense."
Taking a swipe at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he said, "In the past 20 years, Modiji has never taken even a day's holiday. But Rahul Baba goes on holiday every now and then.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)