Illegal Bangladeshis vote bank for Congress: Shah

BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday flagged off the “Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra” (Rajasthan pride tour) from Charbhujanath Temple in Rajsamand district, which kicked off the BJP’s election campaign in Rajasthan.

While addressing a public meet in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand, Shah targeted the Congress over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue in Assam. He said the Congress was seeing illegal Bangladeshis residing in India as its vote bank and asked people to pose a question to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on whether the illegal Bangladeshi people should live in India or not.

“The Congress is actually looking at vote bank in this issue but the Modi government does not run on the basis of vote bank,” he said.

The BJP president also launched a scathing attack on Rahul over his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin. In a response to the statement of Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot that they will pose 40 questions to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje during the 40 days of the yatra, Shah said, “I don’t know Italian or else I would have answered Rahul Gandhi in that language”.

Asserting that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government had launched more than 100 schemes for the people of Rajasthan, Shah targeted the Congress for asking what the BJP had done.

Addressing the Congress president as “Rahul Baba”, Shah said, “Even before checking our accountability, Rahul should answer Indians about what development has taken place over 50 years during the Congress’ rule. Baba should visit those villages where no development took place”.

Shah said that the Centre released two-and-a-half-times more funds to the state government as compared to the previous UPA government.

He also counted Vasundhara’s successful campaigns running in Rajasthan after he flagged off the yatra.

The yatra has been launched by the Rajasthan BJP to make people aware of the work done by the state and the central government ahead of Assembly elections, scheduled later this year.

Earlier in the day, Vasundhara and Shah offered prayers at the Charbhuja temple before the chief minister boarded the specially designed bus with the party president.