Telangana must lead 2019 election campaign: Amit Shah

Hyderabad: BJP president Amit Shah Thursday said the government needs no advice from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and asked her to keep this for her party's remaining state governments.

He said Gandhi should advise her party colleagues in the remaining state governments to work for the people and not to fill their coffers.

"Otherwise people will uproot you from those states also," he said.

Addressing Bharatiya Janata Party workers here, Shah termed the 10-year rule of Congress-led UPA as the "worst-ever" after India's Independence and asked the Congress to do introspection.

"I was watching Sonia Gandhi's speech yesterday (Wednesday). She said some people came to power by making false promises. Only 90 days have passed since we came to power. Don't worry. We will fulfill all promises," he said.

Shah reminded Gandhi that she promised to check price-rise in 100 days but did nothing for 10 years.

He said the BJP would fulfill all its poll promises in a time-bound manner.

"We will implement the manifesto before seeking a fresh mandate," he said.

The BJP chief said the Narendra Modi government has prepared a five-year roadmap and was sincerely working on it.

On his first visit to Telangana after taking over the reins of the party, Shah called upon BJP workers to strengthen the organisation in the newly-created state.

He said while the present BJP-led government was formed on the basis of its performance in western, central and northern states, the foundation for the government in 2019 will be laid by southern and eastern states and it will be led by Telangana.

The BJP chief said he had lot of hope from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and asked the party cadre in Telangana to make a beginning with victory in the ensuing elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

He asked the BJP workers to reach out to every village and every house Sep 17 (Telangana liberation day) to inform people of the work started by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and being taken forward by Modi.

He also told the workers to dedicate themselves to Telangana's development.

Stating that Gujarat and Hyderabad have an old relationship, he said it was 'Ironman' Sardar Patel from Gujarat who came to Hyderabad and liberated it.

"The country, especially Hyderabad, can't forget Sardar Patel. If there was no Sardar, nearly 650 states would not have become part of the Indian Union.

"If somebody else was in his place handling the issue of Hyderabad, it would have taken more time for Hyderabad to become part of India," he said.

Claiming that the BJP was the first national party to support the demand for a separate Telangana state, Shah came down heavily on the Congress for the manner in which it bifurcated Andhra Pradesh.

"The Congress has a tradition of doing politics on every issue and dividing people and states... because of this, Andhra Pradesh was not bifurcated in the manner in which it should have been done," he said.

He welcomed the initiative of the chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to resolve all issues between the states through talks.