BJP a champion of backward castes: Amit Shah

BJP chief Amit Shah today projected his party as a champion of backward castes, asserting that his party had given maximum chief ministers from the OBC category and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also hailed from this section.
Shah also blamed the Congress for the "plight" of Other Backward Classes(OBC) in the country.
At the national meeting of the party's OBC Morcha, Shah said all the schemes of the Modi Government at the Centre is "dedicated to the welfare of the poor and underprivileged classes" while insisting that 'antyodaya' and social harmony was the core principle of the party.
In a dig at regional parties like SP, JD(U) and RJD, which draw their core support from the OBC, Shah said followers of socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia "hijacked" his movement and confined it to their respective castes and families.

The OBC Morcha, a first of its kind within BJP, was formed last year and is seen as a party's outreach to the numerically dominant group which it has been trying hard to woo.
"BJP has given most backward classes CMs to the country and brought a son of poor (family) from the same backward classes as the Prime Minister of India," he told the audience, according to a party statement.

Hitting out at Congress, he alleged that it was solely responsible for the plight of the backward, oppressed and dispossessed classes because it did not implement the economic development plans meant for them and never had any focus on their welfare and uplift.

Shah asked the Morcha's office-bearers to take the
message of the government's works for the poor to the last person in the society, the party said.
Last year, the party reached many new heights, he claimed and noted that its membership crossed 11 crore and that it had the "distinction" of being the world's largest political party.
But now they have to be focused on durable structure of our organization so that they can work ceaselessly for the welfare of backward and oppressed classes of the society, he said.
The party's objective should be the welfare of oppressed and it was their responsibility to bring them into the mainstream of society and cited the government's Jan Dhan, insurance and Mudra schemes aimed at their economic empowerment to drive home his point.

He asked party workers to take this message to the people and also hailed Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana as a major initiative of by the Modi Government for the benefit of farmers.