Mumbai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday declared that the BJP doesn’t need crutches and runs on its own strength in Maharashtra, challenging the party cadre to ensure that the opposition is defeated during the ensuing local body polls in a manner that they are “not seen even with the help of binoculars.”
Speaking to party workers after laying the foundation stone of the Maharashtra BJP’s new office building near Churchgate railway station in south Mumbai, Shah asserted, “we have proved that the politics of family-run parties will no longer work in this country. It is the politics of performance that will lead the nation forward.”
Shah cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a model for the party, saying, “Modi ji is the best example of this. A child born in a humble tea seller’s home rose, through his dedication, sacrifice, and hard work, to become the prime minister of India.”
The BJP does not rely on “crutches” in Maharashtra, he said as he pitched for a “triple-engine government” — at the Centre, in the State, and in local bodies.
“In 2014, we asked for a respectable seat-sharing arrangement with the undivided Shiv Sena, but the alliance broke. We fought alone after a long time and emerged as the single largest party with Devendra Fadnavis as CM. Earlier, we were in the fourth position in State politics; today, we are number one,” Shah said as he recalled the BJP’s rise in Maharashtra.
The Home Minister reiterated that dynastic politics has no future in India. “We have proved that family-run parties cannot survive. It is performance that will take the nation forward,” he said, citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise from a tea-seller’s son to the country’s top office as an example of meritocracy.
Shah listed the BJP’s ideological milestones: abrogation of Article 370, construction of the Ram Mandir, enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act, abolition of triple talaq, and implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in some states. “All our ideological stands have been fulfilled. Now we are focusing on Viksit Bharat 2047,” he said.
On internal democracy, Shah said, “A party that cannot uphold democracy within cannot protect democracy outside. BJP is the only party where a booth president can become national president. I am an example of that.”
Touching upon national security, he recalled the Pahalgam terror attack and said it was avenged through Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev, sending a clear message that “no one can tamper with our army or borders.”
Shah also invoked the BJP’s journey since the Jan Sangh era, crediting its growth to “the seeds sown by leaders and workers” that have now become a “vatvriksha [banyan tree].”
