SHILLONG:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and cabinet minister Sanbor Shullai, on December 29, asked the opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and Congress leaders to apply for BJP ticket if they are not confident of winning with their respective parties.
Calling the Congress and TMC desperate to seek Christian votes in their respective constituencies, Shullai slammed both the parties for continuously raising religious issues as they know they are not winning on TMC and congress tickets from their constituencies.
“Both the parties are so desperate as they have no other card up their sleeve except the divisive religious one, which we all know is highly inappropriate. They should fight the polls on development agenda rather than run a religious propaganda,” he said.
Shullai said that till now no one from the Christian community in Meghalaya has ever felt or been threatened by BJP, it’s leaders or any of its karyakartas.
“Eighty percent of our office bearers are from the Christian community. Nagaland with 98% Christian voters has voted for 12 BJP MLAs. Manipur this very year has elected 7 Christian BJP MLAs from the hills, in Christian dominated south Goa BJP won 9 seats in 2022 to improve its 2017 tally of five seats, in Christian dominated Mizoram BJP M. Laikaw was sworn as CEM of Mara autonomous district council in south mizoram siaha district, in Gujarat BJP fielded first Christian candidate Mohan Konkani from vyara seat and won against four times congress MLA Punaji Gamit,” he said.
The BJP leader said it is imperative Congress and TMC do their homework well and If they cannot deliver their poll promises, they should not even try to make this attempt to fool voters by seeking sympathy votes in the name of religion rather they should join BJP for development.
“Even Arvind Kejriwal claimed before Gujarat elections, that IB predicted AAPs victory. Maybe the same intelligence bureau has told TMC that Christian leaders are being monitored,” he said while adding “Persons who are fighting elections by raking up religious sentiments should not be voted for in a secular democracy.”
“It is also important to remember that all the central welfare schemes do not distinguish between caste, creed or religion. They are meant for all!” he further asserted.