BJP has freed Gujarat of the Congress and its misrule: Amit Shah

The second chariot started its journey on 02 October and led by Gujarat BJP President Shri Jitu Vaghani. It will travel a distance of 2395 km covering 73 Assembly Seats in Saurashtra and South Gujarat. Chief Minister Shri Vijay Rupani will turn up on both Yatra routes on alternate days.

After ‘Adivasi Vikas Gaurav Yatra’ and ‘Narmada Mahotsav Yatra’, the Bharatiya Janata Party began the ‘Gujarat Gaurav Yatra’, the biggest mass outreach programme in poll-bound Gujarat. The BJP National President Shri Amit Shah on 01 October, 2017 flagged off the ‘Gujarat Gaurav Yatra’ from the birth place of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Karamsad in Anand, Gujarat.
The Gujarat Gaurav Yatra is the BJP’s outreach initiative ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections due in December this year. The Yatra planned in two phases covering 4,657 km and through 149 Assembly constituencies of Gujarat will celebrate development in the state under BJP’s rule for over 20 years.

The Yatra comprised of two Raths (chariots), of which the first was kicked-off from Karamsad, the birthplace of Sardar Patel in Anand on 01 October and it will cover 1361 km and 76 Assembly Constituencies in Central and North Gujarat regions. This phase is being led by Deputy Chief Minister Shri Nitin Patel.

The second chariot started its journey on 02 October and led by Gujarat BJP President Shri Jitu Vaghani. It will travel a distance of 2395 km covering 73 Assembly Seats in Saurashtra and South Gujarat. Chief Minister Shri Vijay Rupani will turn up on both Yatra routes on alternate days.

The Yatra will conclude in Gandhinagar on October 15 with a rally addressed by PM Shri Narendra Modi and BJP National President Shri Amit Shah.

While addressing the public at a grand rally on the occasion Shri Shah said, “The emerging BJP will be invincible” while adding that “The party is  not a machine but, a machine for the development of the nation”. The BJP National President accused the Congress of meting out injustice to the state for “three generations”.

Flanked by Chief Minister Shri Vijay Rupani and Deputy CM Shri Nitin Patel, Shri Shah invoked icons of Gujarat, including Sardar Patel, to mount an offensive on the Congress.

‘Rahul Gandhi, the Congress vice-president who was recently on a three-day visit to Saurashtra, comes here and seeks answers from us as to what has the BJP done for the state. We are seeking an answer from you and the Congress, for injustices that the three generations of your rule did to us,” the BJP National President said.

“While the first generation of the Congress insulted Sardar Patel by not giving him his due recognition and the Bharat Ratna, former Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did injustice to Morarji Desai,” Shri Shah said. “The third generation of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi has done injustice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat seeks answer for that,” he said.

Desai was Deputy Prime Minister under Indira Gandhi before falling out with her. He became the Prime Minister in 1977 when the first non-Congress government was formed after the Emergency.

Shri Amit Shah also said that the BJP, through ‘Gujarat Gaurav Yatra’, will make sure that the pride of the revolution of development, brought by the BJP across the length and breadth of this state in last two decades, reaches each and every person.
He said Shri Narendra Modi, then Gujarat Chief Minister, had taken out a Yatra by the same name before the 2002 Assembly elections. This is second part of the Yatra. He said the second phase of this present Gaurav Yatra will start on 02 October from Porbandar, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi.

Before the Gaurav Yatra a chariot was flagged off by Shri Amit Shah. Shri Rupani, Shri Nitin Patel and other senior BJP leaders also addressed a gathering of party workers in Karamsad.

BJP President Shri Amit Shah also launched a video campaign song titled Hun vikas chhu, hun chhu Gujarat’ (I am development, I am Gujarat).

Earlier in the day, the BJP National President visited Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel memorial in Anand district of Gujarat where he paid floral tribute to Sardar Patel.

Second leg of ‘Gujarat Gaurav Yatra’, Porbandar

BJP National President Shri Amit Shah said that BJP has freed Gujarat of the Congress and its goons. The BJP government has ended the days of law and order problems. Launching the second leg of ‘Gaurav Yatra’in Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his birth anniversary on 02 October. Shri Shah said, “People have seen the time when the law and order would end with the border of Porbandar. Names of goons and gangsters like Mamu Miyan, Punju Miyan, Ijju Shaikh and Latif were known. Congress gave communal riots and curfews. But the BJP’s rule in the past two decades brought an end to this. We cleaned up the state of Congress and its goons. We freed Gujarat from curfew.”

He said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi “could not see any of this. He still asks what we have done in these three years.” Owing to Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origins, he said, “Rahul can’t see it because he is wearing Italian glasses. To be able to see the development, he needs to remove those spectacles and wear Gujarati glasses.”

Shri Shah also criticized Rahul’s recent US trip. He said, “If you are dreaming of winning polls, you cannot go for a vacation to the US. To win the polls, you need to remain with the people of Gujarat”.

He said people of India have accepted Modi Model of development which is corruption free, allocation of funds to Gujarat from the Central Government increased substantially after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India.

Congress Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid foundation stone for the Narmada Project way back in 1961 but the Congress Governments kept on delaying the project for four decades, he said adding that the project completed only after BJP-ruled Modi Government came into power in 2014.

‘‘Right from freedom up to 1995 under Congress rule electricity production in Gujarat was nearly 36700 MW which under BJP rule in the past two decades has already crossed 1 lakh MW. Till 1995 there were 73.78 lakh vehicles in the State but in the past 20 years the figure has cross 2 crore,’’ said Shri Shah adding that the production of cotton was around 24 lakh bales till 1995 which has gone up to 1.24 crore in 2017.

He said Production of fruit in the State jumped from 21.29 lakh metric tons to 85 lakh metric tons during the corresponding period. Milk production too increased considerably from 46.9 lakh metric tons to 122.26 lakh metric tons. During the period of 1995 to 2017, Gujarat became number one state in the country; he said adding that it could become possible because of pro-people policy of BJP Governments under Narendra Modi, Anandiben Patel and now Vijay Rupani.

In 1995 there were only 26,000 doctors, now the figure touched 61,000. Same success story for the number of engineering seats which has increase 14 times in the State. The most encouraging development parameter was per capita income which was Rs 13,665 in 1995 but now increase to Rs 1,14,504 in 2017 said Shri Shah.

‘‘With Narendra Modi as Prime Minister the development process of Gujarat will continue in future too. Already approvals for international airport and AIMS in Rajkot have given. Investments are flowing in the state due to Vibrant Gujarat summits. The State has become curfew free and peace has been prevailed,’’ he added.

Talking to reporters about the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra, Union Railways Minister Shri Piyush Goyal said in Ahmedabad that the party’s agenda for Gujarat elections will be development and that the party has substantial statistical data to showcase sustained growth over the past 22 years of its rule.

The BJP has also released a series of short video campaigns under the tagline Hun chhu vikaas (I am Development) on social media platforms. These videos talk about how development under Shri Modi’s leadership has transformed Gujarat.