In Jammu Shah terms Opposition unity efforts as ‘photo op’

'Even if they unite, the Narendra Modi government is sure to return with more than 300 seats during the 2024 general elections,' Shah said.

Mocking Opposition unity efforts, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday termed the Patna meeting of 18 opposition parties as a ‘photo session’ and asserted that the Modi government will return with more than 300 seats in the next general elections.

Shah’s statement came in the backdrop of leaders from Opposition parties across the country converging in Bihar’s capital Patna to draw up a plan to fight the BJP jointly in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“There is a photo session going on in Patna with all the Opposition leaders assembling at one platform to send a message that they will challenge Narendra Modi,” he said while addressing a public rally at Jammu’s Bhagwati Nagar.

The Union Home Minister, who arrived in the morning on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, said: “Jitne bhi haath mila lo, apki ekta sambhav nahi (Join hands but your unity is impossible). Even if they unite, the Narendra Modi government is sure to return with more than 300 seats during the 2024 general elections.”

“There is no comparison between Rahul Baba and Modji. We will win over 300 seats in the 2024 polls,” he asserted.

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Taking a dig at Gandhi’s (Congress), Abdullah's (National Conference) and Mufti’s (PDP), Shah accused the three families of being responsible for the killing of 42000 people in J&K.

“Madam Mufti and Abdullah Saheb, I want to remind you that during the UPA government’s 10-year rule, there had been 7,327 incidents of terror. In our nine-year period, the number has come down to 2,350 only,” he said.

Paying rich tributes to the BJP ideologue, Shayma Prasad Mukherji on his death anniversary, the Home Minister said he was illegally arrested in 1953 for entering into J&K without a permit. The Jammu rally was held on a day that held special significance for the BJP as Mukherji had died in a Srinagar jail on June 23, 1953, days after he was arrested at Lakhanpur border for entering the then J&K state without a permit.

“Why need a permit for entering one’s own country? He (Mukherji) was jailed and later assassinated,” Shah said, adding that today the “soul of Dr Mukherji will be resting in peace as his mission and vision of Ek Vidhan, Ek Nishan and Ek Pradhan (one constitution, one flag and one prime minister) stands fulfilled,” Shah added.

He said India is celebrating nine years of PM Modi’s rule. “Modiji’s rule is an open book. It is not like UPA that did Rs 12 lakh crore scam. There is not even a single corruption allegation against Modiji during his nine-year rule,” the Home Minister said.

Later in the afternoon, the Home Minister reached Srinagar where he attended the Vitasta festival. His packed two-day schedule involves the inauguration and foundation stone-laying of several development projects worth crores in Jammu and Srinagar– maintaining continuity vis-à-vis his earlier visits to J&K.

On Friday evening, Shah will chair a high-level security meeting with J&K Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha and senior officers of the police, intelligence, paramilitary forces and the army to review the security preparation for the upcoming annual Amaranth Yatra that begins on July 1.

This is the second visit of the Home Minister to J&K this year. On January 13, he had visited Jammu following the Dhangri terror attack in Rajouri in which seven civilians were killed by the terrorists on New Year. The attackers remain at large despite a massive counter-terrorist operation by security forces.

Prior to it, he had visited J&K in October 2022, when he had inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 263 development projects worth Rs 1960 Cr in Jammu.