SME Times News Bureau | 22 Jan, 2018
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Saturday said Uttar
Pradesh will top developmental charts by 2022 when the state elects the next
assembly.
Speaking at the 'Yuva Udghosh' programme of the party in Varanasi, the
parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP President
said the fact that 17,000 first-time voters were getting bonded to the party
during the event showed the expression of solidarity and faith in the BJP.
Addressing the gathering of young voters at the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi
Vidyapeeth, Shah said the BJP now has governments in 19 states and was serving
80 per cent of the country and boasted of a base of 11 crore workers.
He termed the BJP not a party but a "movement" committed to creating
a new India.
Shah said it was possible only in a party like the BJP where an ordinary booth
worker could rise through the ranks to become the party President and a
tea-seller could become the Prime Minister.
Earlier, tight security was put in place before the arrival of Shah and Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the temple town, as Congress workers
had distributed pamphlets only a day earlier, alleging Shah's hand in the death
of Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Justice B.H. Loya.
More than four dozen youngsters, mostly from the Youth Congress, were detained
by the police before the rally.
People, including journalists, sporting black clothes were barred from entering
the venue as police feared they could be misused to protest.
Former Congress legislator Ajay Rai, who unsuccessfully contested against Modi
from Varanasi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, staged a sit-in against the BJP
chief.
Congress workers alleged that Shah was not only behind Justice Loya's sudden
death but also billed him 'tadipaar' (one banished by court from entering
Gujarat).