BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday said that there was a “huge BJP wave” in Gujarat which “will wipe away the Congress”.

Addressing an election rally at the temple town of Dwarka, Shah said, “I have already toured 132 Assembly constituencies. Dwarka is the 133rd. In each and every place, there is a huge wave in favour of the BJP. This wave will wipe the Congress away… They are seeing dreams (of winning) in Gujarat. I do not understand where they get the courage to see such dreams.”

Hitting out at the Congress over the corruption issue, he said that in three and half years of the Modi government at the Centre, the Opposition cannot accuse the BJP of being involved in “corruption of even 10 paise”.

“In the 10 years of your rule (UPA government regime), you did scams and corruption amounting to Rs 12 lakh crore, while in the three and half years of Modi government, even our rivals cannot accuse us of corruption of 10 paise,” Shah said and narrated how after Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, the Congress lost states like Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Assam and Manipur to the BJP.

With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi asking the BJP to give accounts of the work done in the last 22 years, Shah hit back at him, saying, “Whenever, Rahul Gandhi questions us about the work done by our government, I say, the first thing that we did is to give the country a Prime Minister who can talk.”

Mocking former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Shah said, “Nobody else, except you (Rahul) and your mother (Sonia Gandhi) could hear the voice of the person whom you had made the Prime Minister.”

“Since 1995, the people of Gujarat have always blessed BJP by voting for the party. We have been in power since 1995 and we have not been involved in a single issue that will force the BJP workers to hang their heads (in shame),” Shah said, emphasising how the BJP was fighting the Assembly polls on development plank, while he accused the Congress of “spreading the poison of castetism on the soil of Gujarat”.
“Vikas (development) is not the character of the Congress. Their character is corruption. Vikas is the character of the BJP,” Shah said, countering the Opposition’s constant attack on the BJP over the issue of development in the state.

Shah said that the BJP government undertook several development works in Dev Bhoomi Dwarka district, including a Rs 1,000-crore-cable-stayed bridge betwen Dwarka and Beyt Dwarka, Mudra loans to 3,000 youths, planned spending worth Rs 1,000 crore on SAUNI yojana, Rs 2,000 crore worth road, linking Dwarka and Porbandar. He said the Modi government has launched 106 schemes for different segments of the society.

The BJP chief also raised the issue of border skirmishes with Pakistan, saying, “During Sonia-Mamohan Singh’s government of 10 years, Pakistan-supported terrorists used to cross the border and behead our soldiers… But PM Modi had hit back at Pakistan by ordering surgical strikes,” Shah added.