Congress days are over in Haryana: Amit Shah

BJP president Amit Shah Thursday said the days of the Congress in Haryana were over and urged voters to give a decisive mandate to his party in the forthcoming assembly polls.

"The days of the Congress in Haryana are over. The Congress promoted corruption in the state. We have to get rid of that," Shah said in his first major public rally after taking over as the Bharatiya Janata Party president.

He said the people of Haryana have seen corruption promoted by the Congress and hooliganism ('gundagardi') under the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

"It is time for you to elect the BJP with a decisive margin so that you get good governance and development," he said.

Shah flagged off the Haryana BJP's 'Vijay Sankalp Yatra', the party's election campaign for the assembly polls. Nearly 40 leaders, mostly from the Congress and INLD, joined the BJP on the occasion.

Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment for a "Congress-free India" would begin from Haryana.

He made it clear that the BJP was willing to go it alone in the assembly elections if its alliance with the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) did not go any further.

"We respect our alliance with the HJC. We are ready for the elections even if the alliance remains or not. We will go by the mood of the people. We are ready to contest all 90 seats," Shah said.

The BJP-HJC alliance has become uncertain after the BJP won seven Lok Sabha seats in the recent parliamentary election. The HJC lost both the seats it contested.

With the announcement of election dates for the 90-member assembly likely to be made by the Election Commission in the next few days, both parties seem to be getting edgy on whether to retain or let go the alliance.

The BJP, which got into an alliance with the HJC in 2011, was earlier ready to play second fiddle to the HJC.

Top BJP leaders like then party chief Nitin Gadkari and Sushma Swaraj, who had worked out the alliance, had even publicly declared that Kuldeep Bishnoi will be chief minister if the alliance was voted to power.

With the Lok Sabha poll results giving new confidence to the BJP, the party is not ready to offer too much to the HJC, let alone making Bishnoi the chief minister.

Earlier, both parties had agreed to contest 45 seats each in the assembly polls.

The BJP, in the new circumstances, is unwilling to offer much to the HJC.

HJC leaders, including Bishnoi, stayed away from the BJP rally addressed by Shah even though the alliance has not yet been formally called off.