Uttarakhand’s BJP government has removed over 10,000 encroachments in the past four years, Union home minister Amit Shah said in Haridwar on Saturday, lauding a drive that the Congress says is targeting Muslims.
Shah described the alleged encroachers as "intruders", a term the BJP has been employing widely to polarise voters in poll-bound Bengal.
"The Congress is wasting all its energy protecting the intruders. Our chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, has removed about 10,000 encroachments," Shah told a rally in Haridwar, seeking votes for the BJP in next year’s Assembly elections.
"We shall find each and every intruder from Kedarnath Dham to Kanyakumari and throw them out of the country."
About 100 mosques and mazars, apart from many houses, have been demolished in Uttarakhand. The Congress alleges that many Muslims have had their homes pulled down despite not being encroachers.
Shah did not address these allegations. He was silent also on the Congress campaign to pressure the Dhami government into revealing the identity of the "VIP" linked to the 2022 murder of a teenaged receptionist at a Rishikesh resort.
Suspended BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit and two associates are serving life terms for killing the 19-year-old after she, according to witnesses, refused to provide "special services" to an unnamed "VIP".
Urmila Sanawar, a TV actress and the estranged partner of a BJP lawmaker, recently claimed that the "VIP" was Dushyant Gautam, BJP national general secretary in charge of Uttarakhand.
The state government and Gautam have denied the allegation. Gauam has filed a defamation suit against Sanawar.
Shah, speaking in election mode, said: "The BJP-led NDA is going to form the governments in Bengal and Tamil Nadu this year. The people of Devbhoomi (Uttarakhand) have to deliver a government with full majority in Uttarakhand once again in 2027."
He added: "The Kumbh will be held in Uttarakhand in 2027 and you will help form a BJP government here for the third consecutive term…. Haridwar’s Kumbh is the pride of the entire country."
Shah accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of opposing the Narendra Modi government on "every issue to create anarchy".
The home minister inaugurated 32 road and power projects and laid the foundation for 19 other projects in Haridwar.
State Congress president Ganesh Godiyal aired a litany of complaints against the government.
"We want to know who in the government is running a cheating mafia from behind the scenes, with the question paper of every examination getting leaked in the state," he said.
"The government is also carrying out mindless construction across the state, which is leading to natural calamities."
Former Union minister and BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi and senior Congress leader Karn Singh have written to the central and state governments to immediately stop the road widening being done under the Char Dham Project.
