Gujarat election battle of casteism, dynasty against development: Shah

New Delhi: Setting the tone on BJP's election strategy for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections, the party president Amit Shah made a scathing attack on Congress and asserted that the polls are not just a fight between two parties but a battle between Congress's casteism and dynastic rule and Prime Minster Narendra Modi's developmental politics.

While addressing a public rally in Bhavnagar on Tuesday morning, Shah also mentioned, "Congress is diluting the agenda of this election by raking up caste conflicts in Gujarat and playing dynastic politics."

Then he also said, "Remember those years between 1980s and 1995, when Congress practiced 3Ts KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) formula. How people used to suffer due to riots. Since BJP has come to power, there have been no riots. Ask the generation born after 1995. They don't know what riots are." Meanwhile, the political observers feel that Shah's comment is an indication of a new hope to reach out to the Patidars who are allegedly supporting the anti-saffron political force.

It was the first public rally of former Gujarat Home Minister and BJP national president Amit Shah, followed by the state president Jitubhai Vaghani's nomination filing and a saffron road show, also attended by Rajya Sabha MP and party national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav.

Making a scathing attack on the erstwhile Congress government the BJP chief mentioned, "Earlier during Congress' rule, 250 days out of 365 used to see curfew in Gujarat. Ever since the BJP came to power in 1995, and especially since 2001 when Narendra Modi took over as the chief minister, there has been peace in Gujarat. When Congress was in power, Pakistani terrorists would come to India and assault Indian soldiers. But last year, when there was an attack in Uri, it was expected that the Prime Minister would again make some lame statements. But Narendrabhai made sure we retaliated with surgical strikes and taught them a lesson."

Shah also took a jibe at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, saying his visits to Gujarat had increased as he thought the state was a "tourist spot". "He is coming here quite often. I don't have any problem with that but he should come here and give an account of what the Sonia-Manmohan (UPA) government, which ruled in Delhi for 10 years, did for Gujarat," Shah also said.

Ahmedabad: Former JD(U) MLA Chhotubhai Vasava on Tuesday said his newly-formed Bhartiya Tribal Party has entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the Congress, and will contest from five places in the Gujarat Assembly polls.

Vasava, a tribal leader and MLA from Jhagadia in Bharuch district, said the Congress has offered five seats to his party which he floated after a split in the JD(U).

These seats are Jhagadia, Dediapada, Mangrol, Morva Hadaf and Waghodia, all reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.

Besides, Vasava's close aide Anil Bhagat has been offered the Congress ticket from Ankleshwar, he said.

"We will contest five seats with our party symbol, auto rickshaw," Vasava said over phone. Candidates of his party have filed nominations for Jhagadia, Dediapada and Mangrol so far, he said.

Vasava, then a JD(U) MLA, had supported senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the recently-held Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat. Patel won by a narrow margin.

Vasava sided with the JD(U) faction led by Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav who parted ways with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the latter's decision to join hands with the BJP to form government in Bihar.

After the Election Commission denied the `arrow' symbol of the JD(U) to the Yadav-led faction, Vasava announced that his outfit will fight Gujarat polls on the auto rickshaw symbol in alliance with the Congress.