Delhi polls: BJP President Amit Shah woos Dalit voters

NEW DELHI: Kicking off the party's campaign for the upcoming Delhi polls at a Dalit meet here, BJP President Amit Shah today made a strong appeal to the members of the community to support the party in forming the next government here.

"After the announcement of Delhi polls, it is the first election rally in the national capital and it shows the BJP's concern for the downtrodden."

"BJP will form the government with Dalit votes and all 12 reserved seats will be bagged by the party in the Delhi Assembly polls," Shah said at a Dalit Mahasangh meeting at Talkatora Stadium.

There are 12 reserved seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. BJP is looking to bag a considerable share of the reserved seats as they are traditionally seen as favouring Congress.

Wooing Dalit voters, Shah further said, "It also shows that, when the BJP government is formed, what will be its foremost concern." The Narendra Modi government will always work for poor, he added.

Referring to the Jan Dhan scheme launched by the Centre, Shah said, "After the launch of the scheme, 10 crore poor people have opened bank accounts in the last seven months."

Slamming Congress, the BJP President charged that the "poor suffered during Congress rule due to inflation and spiralling of prices".

"But under BJP, petrol and diesel prices have been reduced 10-fold... Economy is on an upswing and the poor are getting benefits out of that," Shah said.

On the prevailing political scenario, he said that, in Delhi, the "fight is between BJP and AAP and there is no Congress".

Taking a potshot at AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, he said, "Kejriwal ran a 49-day government and you all know what happened."

Speaking at the event, BJP MP Vijay Goel said it was the BJP government which took steps to regularise the unauthorised colonies.

Goel also promised that power rates will be reduced by 30 per cent if BJP forms the government in Delhi.