Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah said on Wednesday there was a “malicious campaign” going on in the social media with a narrative that the ruling party wanted to change or end the reservation policy. He asserted that the BJP was committed to the existing reservation policy.
Addressing a public meeting at Bhawanipatna, the district headquarter of Kalahandi district, Shah said his party would not allow any change to the quota policy and the Constitution as written by B R Ambedkar.
He said Opposition parties were fully responsible for the death of 10 people during the Bharat bandh by Dalits on April 2. Shah questioned the need for a Bharat bandh when the Central government had declared that it would file a review petition in the Supreme Court to challenge its previous order diluting provisions of the SC/ST Act.
He called upon people to be wary of mischief mongers plotting to derail the “vikas rath” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP president said 20 states were ruled by the BJP, and Karnataka would be the 21st state to have a BJP government. “Each state has joined the development agenda of Modiji and will progress. Odisha too should elect a BJP government to ensure development,” he said.
Shah said the Naveen Patnaik government had failed on all fronts. “It has not been able to provide drinking water, irrigation, health care , education; it does not have the capacity spend the crores that are sent for development of the state by the central government,” he charged.
Union ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan also addressed the gathering and listed out the failures and scams in the 18-year-old BJD government led by Naveen Patnaik.