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Updated: Feb 06, 2019 15:42 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Wednesday targeted the opposition parties over contentious issues including Ayodhya dispute and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at a rally of party’s booth-level workers in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh. He said the BJP is “committed for construction of a Ram temple at the same site in Ayodhya” and dared the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to clarify their stand on the matter.

Shah said the Narendra Modi government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court to return land acquired near the disputed site in Ayodhya by the Centre to its owners. “We want that a grand Ram temple is constructed at the same spot (where there was Mughal era Babri Mosque). The Congress, the SP and the BSP, if they have guts, should clarify their stand on Ram temple,” said Amit Shah.

The Babri mosque was demolished in December 1992 following a movement led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and supported by the BJP. The Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petitions to decide the title suit in the matter. The case will decide who owns the disputed land in Ayodhya, where the BJP has been campaigning for construction of a Ram temple.

On the question of the NRC, which is being prepared for Assam, Shah said the Modi government wants to implement the register of citizens but Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders are opposing it. “Should not we drive away the infiltrators,” Shah asked his party workers from the stage he shared with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union minister Maneka Gandhi among others.

“After winning 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Modi government will drive out every single infiltrator from the country…Infiltrators can be vote bank for the SP and BSP. It is a question of national security for the BJP,” Shah said.

The BJP president mocked the opposition’s attempt to present a united front against the BJP-led NDA in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections saying, “The grand alliance is a farce…It won’t make any difference to the election results.”

He said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and other leaders of the grand alliance are all regional leaders with no national influence.

Shah also took a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for dismissing the assured income assistance scheme – PM Kisan - for the farmers announced in the Budget 2019 by the Modi government. Shah said the previous Congress-led UPA government gave Rs 53,000 crore to farmers as loan waiver while the Modi government announced an annual scheme of Rs 75,000 crore for assured income of farmers.

Gandhi had earlier said the PM Kisan scheme is an insult to farmers. The Modi government has offered Rs 17 a day to the farmers, he said.