Addressing the day-long meeting of the National Council, called to ratify his appointment as President, Shah said time has come to spread the BJP ideology and expand its reach across the country like the Congress did all these years, maintaining that the party cannot rule for long otherwise.
"The country is yet to be rid of Congress. The cadres should keep this in mind... Assembly elections are coming in four states of Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
"We need to ensure that we get absolute majority in all these states. This is our foremost priority. But our long-term objective is to provide good governance to the entire country," he told the conclave attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior leaders like L K Advani, M M Joshi and outgoing party chief Rajnath Singh.
He made a stinging attack on Congress and SP in the wake of rising incidents of communal violence in Uttar Pradesh and accused them of playing vote-bank politics and dividing the society.
"BJP never accepts such incidents (of violence). Peace, unity, harmony and brotherhood are the pre-requisites of progress and there will be no compromise on this.
"Some people who have suffered a massive defeat are still not able to desist from engaging in old vote-bank politics. They are engaged in disturbing the social fabric of the country," Modi said in his 40-minute speech heard with rapt attention.
