Shah questions Congress record on tribal welfare

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday attacked the Congress over the issue of adivasis welfare and asked its leader Rahul Gandhi what did his four generations do for the community during their 70-year rule.

Addressing a poll rally at Aheri in Gadchiroli, a Maoist-affected district in eastern Maharashtra, he also said that Naxals were opposed to development and added the Modi government curbed the menace over the last five years.

Shah, who is also the BJP president, reiterated that the Congress-led governments did not scrap Article 370 of the Constitution due to vote-bank politics.

Ultimately, it was the Modi government that revoked the controversial provision that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, said the home minister, who spearheaded the Centre's efforts to invalidate Article 370 in early August.

"Your four generations ruled nation for 70 years, what you did for adivasis?" Shah asked Gandhi at the rally in the tribal-dominated district.

The BJP chief hit out at Gandhi and NCP president Sharad Pawar, a Congress ally, for allegedly talking about the connection between the Maharashtra polls and the scrapping of Article 370.

He asked Gandhi and Pawar to give an account of what they did for the district and also for Maharashtra, where the Congress-NCP combine was in power for 15 years (1999-2014).

Friday is the penultimate day of campaigning in Maharashtra, which will have a single phase polling on October 21 to elect a new 288-member assembly.

Results will be announced on October 24.