HITTING out at the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said if the coalition of Opposition parties comes to power after the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, it will put a lock at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Addressing a rally in support of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra, Shah also accused the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of defaming the BJP and Narendra Modi by saying if the Prime Minister gets 400 seats in the ongoing election, reservation will be done away with. Referring to SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav’s statement in which he said the Ram Temple issue is “bekar’ (useless), Shah said, “Ram Gopal says the temple is useless. Remember me, though it is not going to happen, if the Opposition parties come to power, they will put a Babri naam ka tala (Babri lock) at the Ram temple.”

 

Accusing the Congress of stalling the Ram temple issue for 70 years, he said, “When you made Modi the Prime Minister for the second time, he not only won the legal dispute involving the Ram Janmabhoomi, but also performed the bhoomi puja (groundbreaking ceremony) of the Ram Temple and its pran pratishtha (consecration) was held in January.” Claiming that Opposition parties did not attend the consecration ceremony of the temple as they were afraid of their vote bank, the BJP leader said, “All of you know who comprise their vote bank. Uttar Pradesh will never support those who shy away from Lord Ram’s work.” On the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Shah said, “Modi has brought a law to give citizenship to those Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains who came to India from Pakistan. A lot of them in Kheri did not have citizenship. (Congress leader) Rahul (Gandhi) and (SP president) Akhilesh (Yadav) say they will withdraw the CAA. Now, no one can do that.”

 

Slamming the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), he said, “If the INDI alliance gets the majority, who will be its Prime Minister? Will Sharad Pawar, Mamata (Banerjee) didi, (M K) Stalin, Akhilesh or Rahul become the prime minister? It does not even have a prime ministerial candidate. It neither has a leader, nor a policy nor determination.” “After the first three phases of the Lok Sabha polls, Modiji has crossed 190 seats.... In the fourth phase, under Modiji’s leadership, we are strongly heading towards 400 seats, while the SP, BSP and Congress have been wiped out,” Shah said. Lakhimpur Kheri will go to polls in the fourth phase of the election on May 13. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.