Shah Tells BJP Workers to Ensure Party Wins over 65 Seats in Chhattisgarh

Raipur, Oct 13 (PTI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah Saturday asked the party workers to ensure that the saffron party retained power in Chhattisgarh in next month's Assembly election by winning over 65 of the 90 seats.

The Chhattisgarh Assembly polls will be held in two phases -- on November 12 and 20 -- and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 11.

Shah was addressing a convention of the booth-level BJP workers from Raipur and Durg divisions at the Science College ground here.

He told the workers that the BJP had reached the "pinnacle of success", but its target would only be achieved when it attained power in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.

Shah claimed that the presence of nearly one lakh booth-level workers and their eagerness showed that the BJP would win 65-plus seats in the forthcoming state Assembly polls.

"From 10 members, the party has grown to 11 crore members, becoming the world's largest party. We have 1,800 MLAs, 330 MPs, governments in 19 states and a government at the Centre with full majority. The BJP flag is being hoisted over 70 per cent of the country's area and the credit for it goes to the booth workers," he said.

"Our struggle started in 1950 and today, we are fortunate to see this grand form of the party. The journey was not simple. Lakhs of our workers devoted and sacrificed their lives, as a result of which the party has reached here," Shah said, adding that the workers of the saffron party continued to "sacrifice their lives" in Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

"As a result of a long struggle, the party has reached the pinnacle of success. But do not consider it as a success because Bengal, Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu are yet to be won," he said.

"Party workers all over the country are watching the (upcoming) Assembly elections. The victories in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh should be such that they create a tsunami, which will ensure victory from West Bengal to Kerala," the BJP chief told the gathering.

He said BJP workers were thrashed when Ajit Jogi (formerly with the Congress and now the chief of the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh) was the chief minister of the state from 2000 to 2003.

Naxalism had thrived in the state under the Congress regime, Shah said, adding that it was crushed during the 15-year rule of Chief Minister Raman Singh.

Heaping praise on Singh, the BJP chief said the chief minister had turned Chhattisgarh from a "bimaru" (backward) state to a "fast developing" state.

He said Singh now wanted to make Chhattisgarh a prosperous state over the next five years.

Shah told the booth-level workers of his party that poll victory would be achieved when they visited every house in their areas to apprise the people of the ruling BJP's achievements.

He hit out at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ordering surgical strikes in September, 2016 to smash terror camps operating out of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Shah earlier addressed the booth-level BJP workers at Jagdalpur.

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