Ahmedabad, Apr 18 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made India secure by carrying out surgical and air strikes inside Pakistan after terror attacks.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Vejalpur area of the city, he also referred to India’s intentions to bid for the Olympics in 2036, and said the games were planned to be held in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar area.
Modi took the country’s economy from the 11th to the fifth spot in ten years, and will take it to the third spot in the world in his third term, said Shah who is seeking reelection from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
“Narendra Modi worked to secure the country. In the Sonia (Gandhi)-Manmohan (Singh) government, anybody would enter from Pakistan and conduct bomb explosions here everyday,” he said.
The BJP won all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat and Modi became the country’s prime minister, Shah said.
Terrorists subsequently struck in Uri (in 2016) and Pulwama (in 2019), but they did not know that “now Manmohan Singh is not the prime minister but Narendra Modi is,” the BJP leader said.
“Within a few days, we went inside Pakistan and conducted surgical and air strikes. Narendra Bhai secured the country,” Shah said
Modi also worked hard to make the country prosperous, he said, noting that when he became PM, India’s economy was at the 11th position in the world.
“Today it is at number five, and in the third term, it will reach number three,” the Union minister said.
In the last ten years, the Modi government finished off terrorism, brought Naxalism under control, abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution which had conferred a special status on Jammu & Kashmir, built the Ram temple in Ayodhya, banned triple talaq and gave citizenship to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Christian minorities (refugees from neighbouring countries) by bringing in the Citizenship Amendment Act, Shah added.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Olympics will be held in India in 2036. It will be held in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar as per our plan,” he said.
He appealed to the people of Gujarat to give all 26 seats including Gandhinagar to the BJP and make Modi prime minister once again.
People should vote in the early hours of May 7 (when entire Gujarat will go to polls) to avoid peak summer heat, Shah said.
The senior BJP leader will file his nomination papers on Friday.
Shah had won from Gandhinagar in 2019 with a margin of more than five lakh votes. In the past, the seat was represented by BJP veteran L K Advani.
Earlier in the day, the Union minister conducted three roadshows in the constituency.
Opposition Congress has fielded party secretary Sonal Patel from Gandhinagar. Patel filed her nomination papers on Tuesday.