Congress ideology must be replaced, says BJP new president

Seeking to replace the “ideology” of Congress, BJP’s new President Amit Shah today asked the cadres to work for expanding the party’s reach with focus on states like UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir where the Assembly polls are due in near future.

Addressing the BJP National Council here, he underlined that the party would not be in Government for long unless its reach is expanded and exhorted all the ministers in Narendra Modi Government to work for the implementation of the party manifesto.

Shah, who is credited with getting BJP-led alliance 73 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections, said: “For long Congress ‘vichar’ (ideology) has been pre-dominant in the country’s politics. Now it is time to ensure that our ‘vichar’ (ideology) has an imprint on nation’s politics.’’

He said the Government would have to run efficiently to play a long innings and along with it, the party has its role of reaching to more and more people and states to carry the message of good governance.

Shah, a close confidante of Modi, slammed the former UPA government, saying it had left the country in a bad condition as it had “failed on all fronts“.

Referring to the recent Lok Sabha polls, the new BJP chief said in his maiden speech that the electoral verdict was “defeat of dynasty politics” and the “people rejected appeasement and votebank politics’’.

“When history is written, the former UPA government will be known as a government of scams,” he said at the convention which endorsed the decision to make him party chief.

Shah lauded the efforts of party cadres in ensuring landslide victory in the recent Lok Sabha polls but said the “work of strengthening BJP in many places still remains’’.

He underlined that, “we cannot rule for long if party’s reach does not expand.”

Referring to the upcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Haryana, Shah said the party workers should focus on ensuring victory for the party on its own in all the states.

He then talked about other states like UP, Bihar, Delhi and Uttarakhand which would be having Assembly polls in near future.

“We have had governments in these states... We need absolute majority in all these states.... We need to focus our energies to ensure victory in all elections, be it in panchayats or assemblies. We need to develop the habit of winning in all elections,” the party chief told the Assembly of leaders and cadres.

Talking about Jammu and Kashmir, Shah said the government in the “very sensitive state” had crossed “all limits of corruption” and people want a change.

Asking cadres from across the country to focus on the Assembly election in the state that is due later this year, he said, “the state will see development only when BJP government is formed there.”

COMMENT NOW