Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Friday said his party will ensure that reservation for people from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities is never scrapped. “It is a party commitment,” he said while addressing nearly three lakh BJP workers at the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex.
Shah is in Mumbai to celebrate the BJP’s 38th foundation day. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, BJP Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar and Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal and Suresh Prabhu attended the event, among several other leaders.
“The BJP started with 10 members, and today it has more than 11 crore members,” Shah said. “We began with two members in Parliament, but now we have an absolute majority.”
The BJP president congratulated party cadres for the BJP’s success. “I pay tribute to the karyakartas [workers] who sacrificed their lives for the party,” he said. “Over the years, the BJP has succeeded in creating an image of an organisational, pertinacious and governance-oriented party image.”
Shah also criticised the Opposition parties for attempting to form an alliance ahead of the 2019 General Elections. “I have heard that whenever floods happen, all the animals come together. Similarly, all these animals like snakes, dogs, cats and mongoose are coming together to fight the Modi flood,” he said.
He added that this was “not the golden period” of the BJP. “It will be the party’s golden period when the BJP forms governments in West Bengal, Odisha and 2019.”
At the rally, Shah also accused the Opposition of halting Parliament proceedings in the second half of the Budget Session, which ended on Friday. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured that Parliament functions smoothly, but the Opposition did not let that happen,” he said. “Today, Parliament was adjourned sine die [with no appointed date for resumption].”
He also criticised Congress President Rahul Gandhi, saying, “Rahul Gandhi demands a four-year account of the BJP’s work, but I want to tell him that the country wants an account of four generations from Rahul ji.”
You can watch Shah’s address at the Mumbai rally here:
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