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Mumbai: BJP President Amit Shah (C) with Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari (R) and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (L) during BJP's 38th Foundation Day celebrations in Mumbai on Friday. PTI Photo by Mitesh Bhuvad (PTI4_6_2018_000136B)[/caption]
Mumbai, April 6 (IANS): BJP President Amit Shah on Friday attacked the opposition parties coming together, likening them to “snakes, mongooses, dogs and cats”, only to retract hours later following strong reactions.
Barely an hour after his comparison of Opposition parties with animals. Shah virtually backtracked on his comments.
He clarified that what he implied was parties with different ideologies joining together to fight the upcoming elections vis-a-vis the BJP and Modi.
“What I intended was that the parties with opposing political ideologies which could never come together have united... They include BSP-SP (the Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party), TDP-Congress, Congress-Trinamool Congress,” Shah told reporters later.
He claimed that “political parties with differing ideologies have united because of the fear of Modi”, noting animals like snake and mongoose never come together. Kindly don’t twist my comments out of context,” Shah, apparently on the backfoot, appealed to the media.
Earlier in his speech, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis compared the Opposition to “wolves” who posed no challenge to Modi.
Sounding a poll bugle ahead of the next year Lok Sabha polls, Shah urged party workers to take a pledge to ensure the BJP retained power with full majority to help achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of “New India”.
The BJP chief said the countdown to the Lok Sabha elections had begun and called upon all activists to fan out to each village to highlight the Modi government’s achievements.
Attacking Congress President Rahul Gandhi -- calling him Rahul Baba -- the BJP chief said he has been given an “injection” by (NCP President) Sharad Pawar, so that now he’s going around asking “what Modi has done in the past four years?”
As for Gandhi’s fears on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, Shah said the BJP would “never do away with reservation in the country and will strongly oppose if any other party attempted to”.
