Congress using Himachal Pradesh as ATM for funding its election campaign: Amit Shah

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, May 25

Union minister for Home, Amit Shah while addressing a political rally at Dharamsala touched emotive issues ranging from probability of NDA government led by PM Narendra Modi being formed at the centre to India taking over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, terming the Congress as a ‘weak link’ in tackling Pakistan, and accusing the party of using Himachal Pradesh as an ATM for funding their campaign and bungling grant provided by the union government during disaster relief.

Amit Shah arrived at the rally venue on Saturday afternoon and directly started his address. Many BJP leaders including the party Lok Sabha candidate from Kangra parliamentary constituency Rajiv Bharadwaj and Dharamsala parliamentary constituency Sudhir Sharma kept waiting to address the crowd.

Shah started his address by introducing Sudhir Sharma as a BJP candidate from Dharamsala, appealing people to give all four seats and six byelection seats to BJP. He said that in the first four rounds of Lok Sabha polls, BJP has already won 310 seats. Congress has already lost and would not even get 40 seats. On June 4, after the election results, Rahul Gandhi would allege that BJP won due to EVMs. If they win in Himachal Pradesh, then EVMs are good; if they lose, then EVMs are to be blamed. “Rahul baba is going to Bangkok, Thailand for leave on June 6,” he said.

Amit Shah further said that PM Modi has not taken a leave since the last 23 years. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi goes on leave as summers approach in country. All INDI alliance leaders have corruption cases against them but there was not even a single corruption allegation against PM Modi, he said.

Shah counted various development works done during the stint of BJP government in the last 10 years including building Rs 12 crore-worth toilets in rural areas and Rs 3 crore-worth new houses for poor, and providing Rs 5 crore-worth free medical treatment to people under the Ayushman scheme. Corona vaccine was provided to 130 crore people of the country, he said.

Targeting the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, Amit Shah said that it has not fulfilled its promises including giving Rs 1,500 to women, 5 lakh jobs to youth, Rs 100 for a litre of milk and Rs 680 crore to start-up funds. He also alleged that the union government provided Rs 1,782 crore for disaster relief to the state.

Amit Shah alleged that the Congress made Himachal Pradesh government an ATM for contesting elections. The people were being forced to pay for funding election campaign.