The BJP will emerge victorious in the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections with a thumping majority, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Tuesday.
“The people of Gujarat are with the BJP. I can clearly see that under your (Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the BJP will form a government with a thumping majority once again in Gujarat,” Shah stated in his virtual address during ‘Vishwas Thi Vikas Yatra’ launched by the state government to mark a year of the Bhupendra Patel government at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar.
Shah virtually laid the foundation and inaugurated 519 public welfare development works worth Rs 1,179 crore at the event.
“I have been working with the party and the organisation for the past 20 years. I know the people of Gujarat. Those doing a business of dreams will not succeed in Gujarat. Gujaratis know people and the work. They remain with the BJP,” the Union Home and Cooperation Minister said.
Shah launched development works in sectors such as panchayats, general administration, village development, ports and transport, energy and petrochemicals, water resources, education, social justice and governance, water supply, urban development and housing, and the roads and buildings department. He also thanked CM Patel for carrying out ‘170 development works’ worth Rs 346 crore in his Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
Lauding Patel’s one-year tenure, Shah said through his work, the CM has responded to all those who casted doubts on him, adding, the state has been at the top in the past year in several public welfare schemes such as ‘Har Ghar Jal’ and Gramin Vikas Index of NITI Aayog. In addition, the state was ranked first in health and industry in the Global Sustainability Index. The state also ranks first with a share of 30 per cent in India’s total exports, he added.
“Gujarat has grown at a rate of 8.2 per cent in the past 10 years. The Bhupendra Patel government has succeeded in maintaining this growth rate even though the world had not yet emerged from the Covid epidemic. Foreign investment worth Rs 31.3 lakh crore has come into the country in the past eight years. Of this, 57 per cent or Rs 17.7 lakh crore has come from Gujarat alone,” he added.
He also mentioned the Memorandum of Understanding worth Rs 1.40 lakh crore signed between the Gujarat government and Vedanta Group in the semiconductor manufacturing sector is expected to provide employment to more than 1 lakh youth.
Despite the state government being at the receiving end of the opposition parties over drug seizures, Shah said Gujarat is the only state which has stepped up its campaign against narcotics and stopped the drug business by seizing narcotics worth lakhs of rupees. “Gujarat is the state that has seized the most narcotics drugs in the entire country,” he said.
In his address, CM Patel said the development of Gujarat and the upliftment of the people over the past 20 years has been unparalleled. The Gujarat government has always given priority to public welfare and development works, making Gujarat a policy-driven state.
The CM said ever since he got the responsibility to carry forward the development journey of Gujarat started by Narendra Modi, his team has been working continuously. He said the government will build 500 new mobile towers in the tribal areas in two years.