Shah slams MVA's 'appeasement politics'; says Patole has agreed to Ulemas' Muslim quota demand
Jalgaon/Buldhana (PTI): Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Sunday said the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi could stoop to any level for the sake of appeasement and vote bank politics.
He further said Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole had agreed to the Ulema Council's demand for Muslim reservations.
Addressing rallies in Raver assembly constituency in Jalgaon and Malkapur seat in Buldhana, Shah pointed out to a recent memorandum submitted by the Ulema Council to the opposition Congress seeking 10 per cent reservation in jobs and education for the Muslim community.
"Patole has agreed to end reservations for SCs. STs and OBCs and give it to Muslims as demanded by the Ulema Council," Shah said in Buldhana.
The demand for 10 per cent quota for the Muslim community would eat into the benefits of Dalits, tribals and Other Backward Classes, since there is a 50 per cent cap on quota and any increase will come at the cost of existing ones, he told the gathering.
"Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders' lust for power has blinded them to long-term consequences of their actions on marginalised communities. The BJP is firmly committed to welfare of all communities but is strictly against any form of reservations for Muslims. As long as there is even one BJP MP or MLA, we will oppose religion-based reservation. This is our commitment," he asserted.
"The MVA parties have compromised the country's safety due to their appeasement politics. They are undermining national security for the sake of votes," he added.
Slamming the Congress and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, the senior BJP leader said they opposed the construction of the Ram Temple for decades, and only after Narendra Modi became prime minister, the issue was resolved with the construction of a grand temple in Ayodhya.
Shah said the BJP's vision for the state aligns with the ideals of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The Mahayuti promises a government focused on preserving Maharashtra's culture and prosperity, he added.
Shah also dared Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray to get Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a Maha Vikas Aghadi ally, to hail Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar and Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
Under the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA dispensation, which ruled between 2019 and June 2022, Maharashtra lost its competitive edge in industrial growth and the state fell to fourth rank, Shah pointed out.
Slamming the opposition parties for claiming that industries were leaving Maharashtra and new ones were not coming up, the senior BJP leader said the MVA can do no good for the state.
Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah said terror attacks under previous Congress-led Union governments faced no response, while the NDA dispensation ordered surgical strikes to hit camps across the border.
Praising the Modi government's move to amend the Waqf Board Act, Shah said, "In Karnataka, villages, temples and agricultural lands were converted into Waqf land. But after the Centre's amendments, such acts will not be possible."
Shah said the Modi government, between 2014 and 2024, allotted Rs 10,15,890 crore to Maharashtra, while this figure was just Rs 1.51 lakh crore under the Manmohan Singh-led UPA dispensation's 10-year rule.
The MVA has been misleading people and has failed to fulfil its promises, he said.
"The MVA's guarantees are nothing but lies, appeasement and involve corruption. They promise hundreds of things, but as (Congress chief) Mallikarjun Kharge rightly said, promises should be ones that can be fulfilled. The guarantees the Congress gave in Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh were not fulfilled," he said.
The MVA cannot protect Maharashtra as its constituents are concerned about their own interests rather than that of the state or nation, he claimed.
"The MVA opposed Mumbai's metro rail lines, coastal road, Pune outer link road, Dharavi redevelopment and Vainganga-Nalganga river linking project. Even the (Mumbai-Ahmedabad) bullet train project was delayed due to the MVA's opposition," he said.
Under the leadership of Modi, the country is witnessing significant growth and its economy is set to become the world's third largest by 2027, he said.
The BJP would continue to champion such policies focused at development at the national and state levels, he added.
Further attacking the Congress, Shah said the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru put the recommendations of the Kakasaheb Kalelkar commission, which advocated quota for backward classes, in cold storage, while then PM Indira Gandhi shelved the Mandal commission recommendations.
"It was the BJP under Modi which brought real change for backward communities," Shah asserted.
Shah further said "caste politics was over" and that "the poor, women, farmers and youth are the only four castes of the country" for whose development the BJP was committedly working.
Speaking in Mumbai earlier in the day, Shah had said "our Constitution does not provide reservations based on religion" but the Congress was promising such quotas before coming to power.
Maharashtra polls will be held on November 20, while votes will be counted on November 23.
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Bypoll: Wayanad witnesses brisk polling
Wayanad/Thrissur(Kerala) (PTI): During the first hour of voting, Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Chelakkara assembly seats in Kerala witnessed a turnout of 6.96 and 7.2 per cent, respectively on Wednesday.
People started arriving early in the morning at the 1,354 polling booths in the hill constituency of Wayanad where there are over 14 lakh registered voters, according to the Election Commission figures.
Some arrived early, while others wanted to get it over with quickly before more people started reaching the polling stations, they told reporters.
It is a holiday in Wayanad LS and Chelakkara assembly constituencies on account of the bypolls.
The Wayanad constituency comprises seven assembly segments of Mananthavady (ST), Sulthan Bathery (ST), and Kalpetta in Wayanad district; Thiruvambady in Kozhikode district; and Eranad, Nilambur, and Wandoor in Malappuram district.
A bypoll was necessitated in the hill constituency after Rahul Gandhi, who won the Wayanad LS seat in the general elections held earlier this year, vacated it after he also won from the Rae Bareli constituency.
There are 16 candidates in the fray for the seat with Congress-led UDF's candidate and Rahul's sister Priyanka, who is making her electoral debut, CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri and BJP-led NDA's Navya Haridas being the top contenders.
Polling in Wayanad commenced amidst tight security arrangements which included deployment of over 2,500 security personnel and live monitoring of the by-election process by an extensive webcasting system.
Voting for the Chelakkara assembly seat in Thrissur district of the state also saw people turning up early at the 177 polling stations in the constituency.
There are six candidates in the fray for the assembly seat, where a bypoll was necessitated after LDF's K Radhakrishnan -- who won from there in 2021 -- was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Alathur constituency by defeating UDF's Ramya Haridas who had won from there in 2019.
Haridas is now contesting from the Chelakkara assembly seat and is pitted against LDF's U R Pradeep and NDA's K Balakrishnan.
There were close to two lakh voters in the constituency during the 2021 assembly election in the state.
Voting began in Wayanad and Chelakkara after a mock poll was carried out by casting votes in favour of all candidates, including NOTA, whose names are there on an EVM.
