Congress joined hands with Ajmal for 'lust for power': Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday attacked the Congress for joining forces with Badruddin Ajmal's AIUDF in Assam because of its "lust for power".

The Congress' "greed" to capture power in the state will remain unfulfilled and the BJP along with its ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which symbolises Assamese identity, will win the assembly polls with a two-thirds majority, Shah told a public rally at Borduwa, the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva, the 15-16th century saint, scholar and religious reformer, in Nagaon district. "The Congress talks about providing security when it is joining hands with Ajmal. It's ony because of its lust for power that it has joined hands with Ajmal.

"The party did nothing to free Assam from violence and infiltration despite having a prime minister who was elected from the state," he said, referring to Manmohan Singh who is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam.

Lok Sabha MP Ajmal's All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) wield's considerable influence among Bengali speaking Assamese Muslims. Enumerating various schemes that the Modi government has launched for Assam, Shah said people will weigh the measures undertaken by it in seven years against those by the Congress over 70 years in the upcoming polls.

Shah also accused the parties formed in the aftermath of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests of "helping the Congress which used bullets to suppress the Assam agitation against foreigners".

He said these parties were formed so they could chip away at BJP's votes and help the Congress but they will not succeed.

Congress leaders are sighted in the state only during elections and later get busy making rounds of the corridors of power in New Delhi to fulfil their vested interests, he alleged.

Prime Minister Modi will never turn his back on Assam and the North East, and will go to any extent to make the region a growth engine of the country, he said.

It is with this intention that Modi visited different states of the North East at least 35 times during the last five years, Shah said.

"The prime minister wants to take the region forward on the path of progress and make it free from corruption, violence and infiltration," he asserted.

The home minister extolled Srimanta Sankardeva for his role in unifying Assam with the rest of the country more than 500 years ago which prompted Mahatma Gandhi to remark that it was he who initiated 'Ram Rajya' in the state. "The spirit will be rekindled," he said.

Shah had, during an earlier visit to Guwahati on December 26 last year, remotely laid the foundation stone for the development and beautification of Batadrava Than at Borduwa, the birth place Sankardeva at an estimated cost of Rs 188 crore. The Than, a Vaishnavite monastery, is being developed as a centre of art, culture, research and spirituality.