Amit Shah attacks Akhilesh, Mayawati; says BJP effective alternative

Basti (UP): Holding that BSP cannot be a replacement for SP, BJP President Amit Shah today said only his party can provide "an effective alternative" to the two parties and ensure development of Uttar Pradesh as he gave the people of the state "full credit" for BJP getting majority in Lok Sabha. "The full credit for the full majority government at the Centre goes to UP... BSP cannot be an alternative to SP and cannot develop the state... It is only BJP which can be an alternative to these parties," he said at a meeting of the party's booth-level presidents at the Kisan Degree College here. Exhorting party workers to take a resolve to "uproot" both BSP and SP, Shah said he was confident that his party will form the government with a two-third majority in the 2017 Assembly election. "For 15 years, turn by turn you gave opportunity to SP and BSP. Now give a chance to BJP," he said. Taking a dig at BSP over quitting by its leaders, Shah said its chief Mayawati will be left alone in the party by the time polls are held next year. Attacking the Akhilesh Yadav government over alleged corruption and failure on law and order front, he said the benefits of various initiatives of the Modi government were not reaching the people because of the SP government. Shah said the UP government was "peculiar" in the sense that instead of giving land to the poor, it was giving it to "goonda" elements in the party. Referring to the Jawahar Bagh incident in Mathura where violent clashes between police and encroachers left 29 people dead earlier this month, he stressed that a government which could not protect its policemen cannot give security to the common man. Blaming the state government for the delay in setting up AIIMS in Gorakhpur, Shah asked the chief minister not to worry about it not as BJP, after it forms the government in the state, will find a way out.