Amit Shah Targets UP Government Over Mathura Clashes In BJP National Executive

Allahabad: Attacking the Samajwadi Party government over recent incidents in Mathura and Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls early next year, BJP president Amit Shah today said the prevailing "atmosphere of violence" is a matter of serious concern.

"The present Samajwadi government, each day is expressing its helplessness in dealing with these situations," Mr Shah said while citing recent clashes in Mathura as also violence and subsequent migration of over 100 families.

Launching a frontal attack on the Akhilesh Yadav government, Mr Shah told the two-day BJP National Executive which began in Allahabad today that, "The lack of development and the lack of governance in the biggest state of India i.e UP is increasing becoming a matter of serious concern," he said.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who briefed reporters about Mr Shah's speech, said the BJP president specially discussed UP and said there was "an atmosphere of violence, which the government has been unsuccessful in curbing."

On the recent incidents in Mathura, Mr Shah said that this politics of forcefully grabbing government land with "patronage" was "very unfortunate."

Mr Shah also referred to the alleged migration of a community from the western UP town of Kairana and said that it is a matter of deep concern.

The BJP president called upon the party workers to work hard and expressed commitment that the BJP will form government in UP with full majority after the Assembly polls.

The BJP president said 2017 is a year of challenges in which besides UP, there are polls in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present during Mr Shah's speech as were senior ministers like Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, senior office bearers as well as party veteran LK Advani.

In his speech, Mr Shah also spoke about electoral violence against his party workers in the states of Kerala and West Bengal. "There is no place for violence in a democracy," Mr Shah said. He emphasised that the entire BJP was with its workers who had faced political attacks in Kerala.

Taking a swipe at Congress, Mr Shah said the party is getting "increasingly weakened" because of its repeated obstructions in the path of development and more and more of its leaders were leaving it.

Highlighting the Modi government's achievements, Mr Shah said that "two prominent Islamic nations of Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan have within a time span of one month conferred their highest award on the Prime Minister of India."

Referring to the prime minister's recent five-nation tour, Mr Shah said that during it the US, Mexico and Switzerland had expressed their support India's entry into the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG).

The BJP president claimed that his party is providing a "no corruption government" which is decisive and had ended policy paralysis of the previous regime.

Claiming that under the leadership of PM Modi, the country had emerged as a "beacon" of the 21st century for the rest of the world, Mr Shah said the government had ensured that there is promising GDP growth with a human face.