BJP will rid Sonia's Lok Sabha seat Rae Bareli of Nehru-Gandhi parivarvad, vows Amit Shah

Rae Bareli (UP): Taking his party's fight against the Congress to the Gandhi family's pocket borough, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said his party would rid Rae Bareli, the Lok Sabha constituency of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, of parivarvad and take it on the path of development. Addressing a public meeting here, Shah said Rae Bareli voted for top Congress leaders, but had not witnessed development since Independence.

"Rae Bareli has seen parivarvad (dynastic politics) ever since Independence till this day and no development...I have come here to make it clear that the BJP will free Rae Bareli of parivarvad and will start the campaign from today itself for taking it on the path of vikasvad (development)," he said.

"The Congress and its top leadership have ruled in Uttar Pradesh and Rae Bareli for years but the bhumi pujan (ground breaking ceremony) of community health centre and primary health centre was carried out only lately and the Yogi Adityanath-led state government has done a lot for the constituency...now with some Congress leaders here joining the BJP, it is our responsibility to develop it by leaps and bounds," he said.

"We will develop it as an ideal constituency and a model district," he said, virtually blowing the BJP's election bugle with the Lok Sabha polls barely some months away. He said that before the Yogi Adityanath dispensation assumed office, Uttar Pradesh was known for goonda raj and bad law and order. "...Yogi government has established rule of law," he said.

On the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand in the Mecca Masjid blast case earlier this week, he sought to target the Congress over the party's attempts to "defame" Hindus in terror cases. "I want to ask Rahul 'Baba', your leaders have talked about saffron terrorism...you need to apologise...decide how low you can stoop," he said.

Shah said he wanted to tell Rae Bareli people that he had been touring all over the country and "I can say Narendra Modi government will come back with a bigger mandate in 2019".