Amit Shah targets, Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi, says they will have to go to jail if they indulge in corruption

Targeting Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and his INDIA bloc partner Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said both would have to go to jail if they indulge in corruption.

Asserting that Modi has crossed 190 seats in three phases of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election held so far, Shah also said the “game is over for the SP, BSP and the Congress.”

He addressed rallies in Hardoi, Kannauj, where Akhilesh Yadav is contesting for the fourth time, and Kheri. All three constituencies vote in the fourth phase on May 13.

“I want to tell Rahul (Gandhi) and Akhilesh (Yadav), if you do corruption you will be caught and go to jail. No one can stop this,” he said in Hardoi on the opposition’s attack on alleged misuse of ED and CBI.

He alleged INDIA bloc leaders were involved in corruption of ₹12 lakh crore.

“On one hand, there are these people involved in ₹12 lakh crore, on the other there is Narendra Modi who is untainted by any such accusation despite being a chief minister and prime minister for the past 23 years,” the senior BJP leader said.

Blaming the Congress and SP for keeping Ram Lalla under a tent for 70 years, he said Modi not only won the legal dispute involving the Ram Janmabhoomi but also performed the bhoomi puja (groundbreaking ceremony) of the Ram temple and the pran pratishtha (consecration) was held in January.

“If these two princes come to power, then be sure they will put the Babri lock on the Ram temple,” he said, adding that Akhilesh, his wife Dimple, Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did not accept the invite for the consecration ceremony.

“They feared their vote bank, but we do not fear that vote bank,” he said, adding Modi was reviving every centre of faith with dedication and he built Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor that was destroyed by Aurangzeb.

He attacked Akhilesh for calling Mohammad Ali Jinnah a great leader in 2021, and suggested all was not well within the SP.

He said violent altercations were taking place in the SP meetings amid internal discord. His statement comes a day after Akhilesh Yadav alleged internal strife in the BJP and said pictures of chief minister Yogi Adityanath were missing from hoardings sent from Delhi.

Targeting Rahul Gandhi, Shah said the Congress leader would be defeated in Rae Bareli after which he could settle down in Italy.

On praises for Rahul from Pakistan, Shah said he was the one pushing the Pakistani agenda.

That is why he opposes everything Modi does such as surgical strike, abolition of Article 370, Balakot strike and gives a clean chit to terrorists, Shah said, adding that they (INDIA bloc) would reinstate Article 370 and triple talaq, if voted to power.

Shah alleged that Rahul Gandhi takes a vacation and goes to Thailand in summer while Modi has not taken a single day of leave and even celebrates Diwali with troops on the border.

In Kannauj, his attacks became sharper on the SP and Akhilesh Yadav. Shah questioned how many times Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family visited the district despite decades of public support.

“The family never showed up when they won nor after getting defeated,” he said, asserting Aklhilesh Yadav was not even in the race.

Accusing the Samajwadi Party of being a dynastic party, Shah said Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Kannauj, his wife Dimple Yadav from Manipuri, Aditya Yadav from Budaun, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad and Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh.

Once their children grow up, they will contest all 80 seats (in Uttar Pradesh), he said.

He cautioned the Yadav community that the family and the party are not their well-wishers.

In his 17-minute speech, Shah said Kannauj has been renowned for centuries for its fragrances, which reaches every corner of the world

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gifted perfume from Kannauj to world leaders at the G20 summit. The sandal that is used for “teeka” of Ram Lalla also goes from Kannauj, he said.

He criticised Yadav for allegedly instigating people against the Covid vaccine by calling it Modi’s vaccine.

Shah campaigned for BJP candidates Subrat Pathak in Kannauj, Jai Prakash in Hardoi and Ashok Rawat in Mishrikh (Sitapur).

At a rally in support of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra, the BJP candidate from Kheri, Shah accused the Congress, SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of defaming the saffron party and Narendra Modi by saying if the prime minister gets 400 seats in the ongoing election, reservation will be done away with.

Shah said that before the elections, the Congress took out the “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra” but after the polls, a “Congress Dhoondho Yatra” would have to be taken out.

He also said Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh were claiming they would repeal the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), but the truth was that not even Rahul, let alone any force in the country, could repeal the CAA.

He noted that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav did not go to pay homage to a leader like Kalyan Singh even 500 metres from his house, but went 500 kilometers to condole Mukhtar Ansari’s death.

When the INDIA bloc was in power in Uttar Pradesh, goons and mafia had captured land across the state, there were power cuts on Holi and Diwali, but 24-hour electricity was available during Ramzan, Shah said.

But now, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, he said, was providing 24-hour electricity even on Holi and Diwali. During the previous governments in the state, the public had to migrate, but in Yogiji’s rule, it is the mafia who are migrating, he added.