Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on Wednesday, said that the Samajwadi Party and the Congress were not in favour of Ram temple being constructed in Ayodhya. He was addressing a public meeting in Muzaffarnagar to seek votes for Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Sanjeev Balyan ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Shah said it was the Narendra Modi government that honoured the sentiments of people and built the temple in Ayodhya. He also said that the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh had stopped the migration of people from western Uttar Pradesh by improving the law and order situation and it was the criminals who were now leaving the state. Shah also raked up the mass exodus issue of Kairana, saying that in 2014, when he was in charge of the Uttar Pradesh BJP. There was migration of people from Kairana, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur in those years. But after the formation of the BJP government in 2017, the terror of goons has vanished here and migration has been stopped. Now, instead of innocent citizens, goons have started migrating from Uttar Pradesh, he said. He said Akhilesh Yadavs party (SP) and the Congress never wanted the Ram temple to be built in Ayodhya. The Congress kept the issue of Ram Janmabhoomi stuck for 70 years but Modi won the case, performed bhoomi pujan and also the consecration of Ram Lalla. The SP and the Congress have formed an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the general election. Criticising the INDIA bloc, Shah said all those who were part of the opposition alliance were involved in scams. Those part of the arrogant alliance are the ones involved in scams and corruption worth Rs 12 lakh crore... They (INDIA bloc) held a rally where they talked about giving protection to the corrupt, Shah said. Today I am telling the entire people of Uttar Pradesh from this platform that in 2014,  Modi ji said that those who have committed corruption will go to jail and in 2024 also he is saying the same thing, Shah said. The aim of the opposition is to make people from their family chief ministers and prime ministers. The aim of Modi ji is to make the poor, farmers, helpless, Dalits and tribals strong and stand on their feet, he added. Shah highlighted the farmer-friendly policies of the Modi government to woo the voters of Muzaffarnagar, which forms part of western UPs sugarcane belt. Modi has brought a lot of changes within this sector by making a national policy for sugarcane. Remember when the Congress government was in power, the FRP (fair and remunerative price) of sugarcane was Rs 210 per quintal and today Modi ji has increased it to Rs 340 per quintal, he said. As far as payment is concerned, from 1995 to 2017, the average payment was Rs 23,000 crore and today the BJP has done the work of paying Rs 2.50 lakh crore for sugarcane, he said. During the BJP rule, more than 20 sugar mills were restarted and five new sugar mills were set up, he added. In 2014-15, ethanol was not mixed in petrol, but due to a policy of the Modi government, today 156 crore litres of ethanol is mixed in petrol, which has increased the income of sugarcane farmers, he added. He also said that the people of the country appreciated the Modi government for the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Shah started his speech by mentioning former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. Rashtriya Lok Dal president Jayant Chaudhary, who accompanied Shah at the rally, hailed the government for conferring the Bharat Ratna on his grandfather Chaudhary Charan Singh. Jayant Chaudhary also said none of the INDIA bloc leaders had said a word about Chaudhary Charan Singh getting the Bharat Ratna. Chaudhary Charan Singh, who was posthumously conferred with Indias highest civilian award Bharat Ratna on February 9, is popularly known as a champion of farmers. Shah later visited neighbouring Moradabad and interacted with the party workers there. The BJP has fielded Sarvesh Singh from Moradabad while the SP has given the ticket to Ruchi Veera, who is considered close to the party stalwart.

Stay updated with all the Lucknow Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.