BJP national president Amit Shah on Saturday termed the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as “Rahu-Ketu”, who could not usher in development in Uttar Pradesh. Rahu and Ketu are two detrimental planets according to Hindu mythology.
Addressing a party rally in Mau in UP, Shah said: “SP and BSP are like ‘Rahu’ and ‘Ketu’ which are eclipsing the development of the state. Uttar Pradesh’s development is not possible in their regimes.”
“The development ‘rath’ (chariot), which has started its journey in the country, gets stuck in UP. The reason being the government here does not want benefits of development to reach the people,” Shah said and urged the party supporters to work to install a BJP government in the 2017 Assembly elections in the state.
The BJP president also detailed the achievements of several BJP-led NDA governments in states and announced five crore poor families would soon be given free gas cylinders and stoves. Of these, four lakh families have already received the benefit, he added.
“Whether you go to Gujarat or Maharashtra, you see a number of youths from Poorvanchal working there. They are forced to leave their families behind and go to other states. The country has prospered but not Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Alleging that jobs were distributed on the basis of caste in the state, the BJP chief said, “We do not discriminate on the basis of caste and religion. Our motto is ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas’.”
Shah praised BSP founder Kanshi Ram as “a man with a clear heart”. “But after him, Mayawati has turned BSP into a money-minting machine. If you want development, you have to dislodge SP and BSP who have taken turns to rule the state for 20 years,” he said.