Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday lashed out at the Congress, accusing the grand old party of ruining Madhya Pradesh, which goes to poll on November 17.

“Very soon the people of Madhya Pradesh will cast their votes. My appeal to you is that you should not vote to elect an MLA, a minister or a chief minister. Your vote will decide the future of the state and the country. So vote accordingly. You have only two alternatives. One is the Congress that ruined Madhya Pradesh and made it a BIMARU state. On the other hand, you have the BJP led by PM Narendra Modi Ji who has extended development to every corner of the state in the last 18 years”, Shah said during a rally in Ujjain.

“The land of Mahakal is the place from where the Indian standard time began. There was a time when Madhya Pradesh was full of roads with potholes everywhere”, the home minister said.

Hailing chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Shah said the welfare of poor, development of cities including Ujjain and villages were carried out by the BJP.

“When the Congress lost power in this state in2002, the budget of Madhya Pradesh was ₹23,000 crore. But now it has been increased to Rs. 3.15 lakh crore by the BJP. The education budget was Rs. 24,056 crore which has now increased to Rs.38,000 crore,” he said.

“The three families of Gandhi, Kamal Nath and Nakul Nath and Digvijaya Sjingh and his son- did nothing other than ruining MP. When I came from Indore to Ujjain I saw development works like roads and bridges and flyovers . PM Modi has sanctioned Rs. 9 lakh crore in just one budget for Madhya Pradesh. In the last nine years, Rs. 31 lakh core was spent on the development of Madhya Pradesh”, he said.

“I dare Kamal Nath on the land of Mahakal to decide whether Manmohan Singh’s ten years or Narendra Modi’s ten years brought development to Madhya Pradesh. The leaders of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha will answer you there,” he said.

‘Cong did not remove Article 370, PM Modi made Kashmir the crown of India’

During his rally, Shah lashed out at the Congress over national issues. “Congress did not remove article 370. But once you elected PM Modi for the second time, he removed it. Congress had advised us not to do so, warning against violence on the streets in Kashmir. But no one dared to throw a stone. And now Modi Ji has made Kashmir the crown of India and integrated with our nation forever,” he said.

On the Ram temple issue, the home minister said, “The Congress hindered the building of the Ram temple for years. When I was the BJP president, Rahul Baba used to mock us with the slogan ‘Mandir wahi banayenge par tithi nahi batayenge’ (‘We will build the temple, but will not announce the date when it will be built). Now we have built the temple and also have given the date that is 22 January.”

“In our tenure, Mahakal Lok was built garnering the praise of every tourist. Tell me whether the Congress, that opposes building the Mahakal Lok should be voted into power?” he asked the supporters.

“Not only Mahakal Lok. During Modi rule Kashi Viswanath corridor was built, the Somnath temple is being built with gold, and the Badrinath and Kedarnath were restored. Bharat also reached reached the moon with Chandrayaan,” he said.

‘Cong found airstrikes, surgical strikes problematic’

Continuing his attack on the Congress, Shah said,”Whatever we do, the Congress stands against us. Be it removing triple talaq or Article 370, they also find airstrikes and surgical strikes problematic. Rahul Baba, in your time Pakistan launched proxy attacks every other day. No one answered. But during Modi Ji’s rule, Uri and Pulwama were attacked, forgetting that Mauni Baba Manmohan Singh was no longer in power. Within 10 days surgical strike and airstrike was carried out to annihilate the terrorists”.

“Congress opposes that too. When G20 leadership came to India the nation was in joy. They also oppose it. When G20 leadership laid wreaths on Mahatma Gandhi memorial everyone felt proud”, he added.