Jaipur:

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections had been a “bumper” and claimed that people were chanting “Modi, Modi” after casting their votes.

Of the 102 Assembly seats that went to polls in the first phase of the seven-phase elections, Rajasthan has 12 seats.

“In the first phase, massive voting is taking place across the country. Whoever goes in will shout ‘Modi, Modi’ when he comes out,” Shah said while addressing an election rally during the seat polls. The rally was held at Bhopalgarh, the Pali parliamentary constituency, will go to polls in the second phase on April 26.

Targeting the Congress party, Shah said its members did not attend the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya as they were “fearful of the minority vote bank”. Talking about the property rights litigation of Ram Jamabhoomi-Babri Masjid, he said that the case was pending for many years but it got settled when Narendra Modi was elected Prime Minister for the second time. ruled and built the Ram temple.

Ram Lalla celebrated his birthday (Ram Navami) at the new temple after “500 years”, the BJP leader said.

“When the Congress party received an invitation to hold Pran Pratishtha Mahhotsav (consecration ceremony), they (party leaders) did not go. They were afraid of their own vote bank, they were afraid of the minority vote bank. We are not afraid,” he said .

Shah hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the OBC (Other Backward Classes) issue, which he said was the Congress party’s objection to the Mandal Commission report. He said Prime Minister Modi has always been committed to paying tribute to the members of backward classes and giving constitutional status to the Backward Classes Commission.

The BJP leader said, “37% of the MPs are OBC, 27 (Union) ministers are OBC and the Prime Minister himself is an OBC”.

Talking about Modi’s tenure as chief minister and prime minister of Gujarat, Shah said that Modi has been working for the country for the past 23 years without taking a vacation, while Gandhi would go on vacation abroad once every three months.

“There are two people, one is Modi, who has served ‘Bharat Mata’ for 23 years without taking any leave, and the other is Rahul Baba, who goes to Thailand for vacation every three months…” he said.

“On one side is the Nehru-Gandhi family that ruled for 55 years and four generations, and on the other side is Narendra Modi who lifted tens of millions of poor people out of poverty in 10 years. And the Congress The party was instead involved in scams and scams. “Corruption worth Rs 1,200 crore, there are no corruption charges against Narendra Modi,” Shah said.

He also said that Prime Minister Modi is the biggest supporter of reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and OBC.

“Some people ask me why we (BJP-led NDA) have to get more than 400 seats. Let me tell you, Narendra Modi is the biggest supporter of reservation, whether OBC, SC or ST. Congress asked why the number of seats should be what it is? Crossed 400, we crossed 300, abolished Article 370, made Indian economy fifth largest, did the job of ‘one pension, one level’, abolished triplex Talaq, work hard to get 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and states, pass CAA and bring UCC,” Shah said.

He said Modi was committed to protecting the country and making it prosperous.

Shah appealed to voters to support the BJP’s Pali candidate Chowdhury.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)