Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday claimed that the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will come back to power at the Centre with a two-third majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Shah, who is considered the party’s chief strategist, also expressed confidence that the party will form the government in Odisha in the Assembly polls scheduled to be held in the same year. The BJP stalwart was attending a function where the Odia translation of ‘Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery’ which chronicles Modi's journey from a Gujarat chief minister to the country's prime minister, Though the BJP is often described as a political party of the country’s Hindi-speaking region, it has formed governments in the North-eastern states, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, he said.
“We will also form the government in Odisha next time,” Shah said. After a gap of 30 years, a party came to power with a two-third majority as the people of India in 2014 installed a government at the Centre headed by Narendra Modi, he said.
The BJP’s victory journey is continuing and due to its leader’s “hard work, dedication and selfless service to the people of India”, the party will come to power again with a two-third majority, he said. “Modi ji targeted three aspects that had destroyed Indian politics. They were: politics of dynasties, appeasement and above all corruption,” Shah said without naming any political party. Dynastic politics were thwarting the performance of able leaders, appeasement policy ensured that benefits go to some specific categories and not to the people as a whole, while corruption damaged the economic fabrics of the country, he said. Claiming that the country was stung by corruption to the tune of Rs 12 lakh crore before the BJP-led NDA came to power in 2014, Shah asserted that bold steps taken by Modi have dealt a death blow to corruption and paved the way for transparency and honesty. “Modi ji ensured the end of all bad elements of politics and therefore accepted by the 130 crore people of India,” he said.
After that, the PM established politics of performance with a focus on good governance, he said. Shah said Modi gave an opportunity to the people who have been neglected for decades. “In his first term, he made Dalit leader Ram Nath Kovid the President of India and now, a tribal woman from a remote Odisha village, Droupadi Murmu is the “Mahamahim (honourable President).” Shah said dynastic parties should realise that they need to change or they will perish. He claimed that prior to the NDA government, the country witnessed policy paralysis and internal security was often in danger.
“Terrorists used to unleash terror at will killing innocent people while none dared to challenge them. However, the confidence of the countrymen was restored after Modi became the prime minister. The enemies of the nation were targeted and eliminated in their land also,” he said.
He said Modi has not celebrated Diwali with his family, but with the jawans providing security to the nation round the clock. Describing Modi as a statesman, a team leader, a reformer, a thinker and a “Upabhog sunya swami” (master without luxury), Shah said his call for the ‘Janata Curfew’ during the pandemic was observed by people in letter and spirit without any government notification. “Prime Minister Modi has elevated the status of India in the international sphere,” he said. In another programme, the BJP leader distributed national flags and photos featuring President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to some tribal and Dalit people as part of the party’s “Har Ghar Triranga” Abhijan. Members of the particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) community were invited to the BJP state headquarters where Shah interacted with them and informed them about the election of Droupadi Murmu as the President of India. Later, Shah called upon party workers to ensure that the national Tricolour and the photo of the President and the PM reach one crore households in the state.