BJP expanding across the country, says Amit Shah

Hyderabad, May 25 (IANS) BJP national President Amit Shah on Wednesday said the party was expanding across the country but felt that it has to become strong in south India.

Addressing a meeting of party workers here to wind up his three-day visit to Telangana, he exuded confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will form the government in Telangana in the same way as it has done in many states during the last three years.

Stating that BJP is expanding under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said while the party was not against anybody, it had every right to expand.

Noting BJP formed governments in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur and increased its vote share in Bihar, Delhi Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha and Tripura, he asked the party workers to work hard to reach every household in the state to inform people about the achievements of Modi government and to spread his message.

Shah said his Telangana visit was part of the nation-wide campaign launched by BJP for expansion. Under this year-long campaign, four lakh BJP workers will run door-to-door campaign in 8.5 lakh booths to tell them about the achievements of Modi government.

The BJP chief said this 'yatra' was for expansion of the ideology for which Jan Sangh was formed and later BJP came into existence.

He said that Jan Sangh made a beginning with just 10 members and today BJP has become the world's biggest party with 11 crore members.

Shah said BJP has 1,387 legislators in the country, governments in 13 states and with 330 MPs is the biggest party in Parliament.

Claiming that Modi government did in three years what the previous governments could not in 70 years, he said: "Today we can proudly that under Modi's leadership India has emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world."

Shah said he stood by his statement that the Centre gave Rs 1 lakh crore additional funds to Telangana in three years. He said while the Centre had done no favour to people of Telangana, the BJP had every right to say what the state was getting in the past and what it is getting now.