Lok Sabha elections: Union Home Minister Amit Shah kicks off BJP campaign in Haryana

Karnal, November 2

Ahead of the General Election in 2024, Union Home Minister Amit Shah today launched the poll campaign in Haryana and declared PM Narendra Modi as the BJP-led NDA’s prime-ministerial candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He was addressing a state-level ‘Antyodaya Mahasammelan’ rally in Karnal on the completion of nine years of the BJP government in the state.

The absentees

• Former state BJP chief OP Dhankar, Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia, Hisar MP Bijender Singh, Union Minister Krishan Pal Gurjar, and some MLAs were absent from the programme
• Party district president Yogendera Rana said most MPs and MLAs were busy in election duty in MP and Rajasthan

Exhorting people to elect Modi for the third consecutive time, he said Modi was the only leader who could make the construction of the temple in Ayodhya possible. “People had been waiting, demanding, and praying for years that Ram Lalla would get a grand mandir, but the Congress halted it for years. Modi has performed ‘bhoomi pujan’, and will perform ‘pran pratishtha’ on January 22,” he said.

In his 30-minute speech, he highlighted the works done by the Centre and appreciated CM ML Khattar for his work in Haryana.

He took a dig at the Congress and the Opposition alliance INDIA. “The Union government allocated Rs 1,32,000 crore to Haryana in the past nine years for development, against Rs 40,000 crore provided during the previous Congress’ 10-year rule,” he claimed.

Terming INDIA as a group of 27 arrogant parties, he claimed that all opposition alliance parties were selfish. “Some want to be PM, some want their son to be PM or CM, and some are hiding from probe agencies, but they would fail,” he said.

He also accused the Congress of not undertaking development of the state in an inclusive manner and referred to it as a party of “cut, commission and corruption”. “If it wants to understand how development is done, it should go through the works done by Modi at the Centre and Khattar in Haryana,” he said.

Shah said former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda should see the development works in Haryana. “There was rampant corruption in the previous Congress government in Haryana and only ‘damaad ji’ benefited,” he stated. Meanwhile, postcards with the CM’s address were distributed among people at the rally, asking them to directly communicate with him.