Many Tripura ministers involved in chit fund scams, will be sent to jail: Amit Shah

BJP president Amit Shah today alleged that many Tripura ministers were directly involved in chit fund scams and added that they would be sent to jail if the saffron party wrested power from the CPI(M) in the upcoming Assembly polls.

Addressing a public rally here, Shah said the BJP had demanded a CBI inquiry into the Rose Valley chit fund scam in the north-eastern state and alleged that the Left Front government did not order a probe to protect their own interest. "The BJP will form the next government here and within a month of that, we will identify those involved in the chit fund scams and corruption. I am sure many ministers are involved in the chit fund scams and they will be sent to jail," he added.

The BJP chief is on a visit to Tripura, where the Assembly polls are due as the term of the current House is scheduled to come to an end on March 6. Shah warned the ruling CPI(M) that any attempt by them to trigger violence in the run-up to the polls would not be spared. "The more they try to spread violence, the more the lotus (BJP's poll symbol) will bloom," he said. The BJP president said the Communists were rejected everywhere in the country but Tripura and claimed that a similar fate awaited the Congress as well. "Now is the time for the lotus to bloom. Wherever you look, you will only see the lotus. It will bloom in Tripura also," he added.
Besides Tripura, the CPI(M) is in power in Kerala too.

At another rally in Kulai, Shah said a regime change in Tripura had become inevitable as the incumbent government had failed on many fronts, including combating the crimes against women and unemployment.
He said he had seen a lack of development and instances of corruption in the states ruled by the Congress or Communists and claimed that the BJP-ruled states were ahead of those states in terms of development and being corruption- free.

"The BJP does not want a change for the sake of it...it wants a change to bring about a qualitative difference in governance so that the condition of the lives of the people improve," Shah said. "Seeing the huge gathering here, I can realise that the change has become inevitable in this state. The rate of crimes against women is very high, the rule of law does not exist.
Crime has become synonymous with the CPI(M) rule," he added. Shah claimed that in a small state like Tripura, which has a population of a little over 36 lakh, seven lakh youths were unemployed and of them, the upper-age limit of two lakh had expired.

"Those in the CPI(M) say, (Tripura) Chief Minister Manik Sarkar is a good man. We know that the unemployment problem is acute here, but they say Manik babu is a good man. What I want to know is, if he is good, why is the condition of the people of the state not so good," he said. Shah alleged that in the last 25 years of Communist rule in the state, no proper roads were constructed and no facility for good healthcare, electricity and drinking water were made available in the villages.

The BJP chief added that unless the Left Front government was changed in the north-eastern state, it would be reduced to a backward state in terms of protection of women, unemployment and economic development of the poor and the working class.