Korba, January 7: Naxalite violence has declined over the last decade and efforts are on to rid the country of the Naxal menace before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.
Shah was speaking at a rally at Indira Stadium in Korba city of Chhattisgarh, a state most affected by Maoist violence. Sounding the poll bugle, the BJP leader also urged people to vote out the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in the state in the Assembly elections this year.
People should vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party if they wanted to see Narendra Modi as Prime Minister once again in 2024, he said, while blaming the Baghel government for a ‘rise’ in crime and corruption. “Naxalite incidents declined to 509 in 2021, from 2,258 in 2009 when the Congress was in power at the Centre,” Shah said. The Narendra Modi government not only ensured that the youth (in Naxalite-affected areas) who used to pick up weapons got access to education and employment, but also worked to eliminate those who wielded weapons, he said.
“Our government’s effort is to make the country free of Naxalism before the 2024 parliamentary polls,” he added.
Taking a swipe at the Congress government, he said, “I want to ask Bhupesh Baghel what he will tell people if they ask him what he has done in his five years’ rule..not that he has done nothing. He has worked to increase corruption, incidents of rape and crimes, and the cutting of forests of tribals.”
