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Amit Shah lays foundations in Godda, opposition cries foul

GODDA: BJP national president Amit Shah laid foundations of Rs 300-crore Bihar-Jharkhand city gas distribution project besides other developmental works in the presence of chief minister Raghubar Das at a formal government ceremony at Godda’s Gandhi Maidan on Tuesday afternoon, aggressively using the stage to campaign for the saffron party ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha poll.

Shah’s presence at a state government programme as chief guest laying foundations, however, gave the opposition parties ammunition to call it “highly unconstitutional”.


The 1,564-km-long city gas distribution work between Bihar (Sheikhpura, Jamui) and Jharkhand (Deoghar) will be implemented by Indian Oil Corporation in next eight years. Foundations for three road projects —19km Mehrama Parasi-Tetaria, 31km Taljharai-Poriyahat and 36.25km Mahadebnath –Tesobnath—were also laid by Shah.

Shah, who visited Santhal Pargana ( Godda ) for the first time on Tuesday, targeted Congress and AICC president Rahul Gandhi but skipped any mention of JMM, which still holds large sway among this tribal belt. Santhal Pargana has three Lok Sabha seats—Godda, Raj Mahal and Dumka.

Opposition parties, however, turned furious on the use of government stage for poll campaigning. “This was expected out of BJP for whom doing everything that is unconstitutional is their fundamental right. Amit Shah is neither a minister in the state government or in the Centre. But the irony is that Das government has blatantly allowed the stage of a government programme to his party president for poll campaign,” said JMM’s Maheshpur MLA Stephen Marandi.

Jamtara MLA (Congress) Irfan Ansari said that he raised his objection before district administration a couple of days ago to stop Shah from misusing the stage. “BJP is so nervous that they are ready to go to any extent for their self interest. Ironically, government officials remained witnessed as mute spectators to such violations. When Sonia Gandhi was AICC president, she never did such things, be it in any state or at the Centre where we had our governments,” said Ansari.

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