Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that “politics of religion-based vote bank” has no relevance in the country, and the only religion for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is “development and development alone”.

Singh accused the Congress of spreading false propaganda among the minority communities, particularly Muslims, “to poison their minds” against the BJP. The Minister also said that the opposition party has always exploited the minorities as a vulnerable vote bank and played with their sentiments, but was never sincere to them.

Jitendra Singh, who is a Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said that in this Assembly election in Assam, those from the minority communities who were misled by the Congress party and AIUDF last time will vote for the BJP.

“A message is destined to go out loud and clear across the country that under Prime Minister Modi, the politics of religion-based vote bank has no relevance and the only religion for the BJP is development and development alone,” Singh told journalists.

The minister held a series of public rallies in minority community-dominated Assembly constituencies of Baghbor and Jania.

Singh alleged that right from the time of independence, the Congress developed its ploy to exploit sentiments of the minority communities in a bid to secure the maximum share of their vote.

“However, with time, this strategy was meeting the fate of diminishing returns because now the people are much more awakened and the majority of the voters comprised the third generation of post-independence youths who reason out their preference before casting their votes,” said Singh, who is also the BJP’s co-in-charge for Assam.

‘Justice for all, appeasement of none’ is the new mantra, says Singh

He asked why, despite 65 years of ruling both the Centre and the state of Assam, the Congress did not think of bringing about reforms like the law against triple talaq “for the benefit of Muslim sisters”.

“Has the gas cylinder sent by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under Ujjawala scheme ever discriminated on the basis of religion or caste and was it ever enquired whether the household where the free gas cylinder was being delivered was a Muslim household or a Hindu household?” Singh asked.

Some of the largest bridges of the country had been launched by PM Modi in the state of Assam “but was there ever any condition laid down that the bridge can be used only by a particular community and not by other communities”, he said.

“It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has sought to introduce a new political culture based on justice and requirements of the last man in the last queue, regardless of his religion or faith. The BJP is following the mantra of ”justice for all, appeasement of none,” Singh said.

A total of 39 and 40 constituencies will go to polls in Assam on April 1 and 6, respectively. Voting for the first phase of polls in 47 of the 126 seats in Assam was held on March 27.

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