Puducherry govt most corrupt: Amit Shah

BJP President Amit Shah said on Monday that the V Narayanasamy-led Congress government in the Union Territory of Puducherry is the most corrupt government he has seen in his lifetime.

"In my lifetime, I have not seen such a corrupt government anywhere," Shah said while addressing a meeting of intellectuals in Puducherry on the first day of his two-day visit there.

Shah, who arrived in Puducherry as part of his 110-day nationwide tour to strengthen the party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, said that the Centre has been allocating more funds for the Puducherry government. He noted that in the last three years, the Narendra Modi government has increased funds allocation to Puducherry by 613 per cent. He also listed out various schemes of the Modi government and its achievements, besides the status of implementation of the schemes in Puducherry.

Shah, who was on his second visit to the Union Territory after assuming charge of the party, was given a warm reception, with a huge bike rally taken out by party cadres through important thoroughfares from the airport to the town. After garlanding a statue of Tamil poet Subramania Bharathiyar near the Raj Nivas, he attended a meeting of office bearers of the party's Puducherry unit and took stock of the political situation.

Sources in the BJP said that the party wants to develop its base in the Union Territory as part of its effort to make inroads into South India, where the party has no major presence except in Karnataka. The BJP had failed to make any inroads after it tasted electoral victory for the first time in 2001 by winning the Reddiyarpalayam Assembly seat. However, the party's electoral fortunes have been falling steadily and in the 2016 polls, they were at the lowest ebb, except in Ossudu constituency, where the BJP finished second. "We are going to focus our campaign on the failures of the Narayanasamy government and highlighting the good work done by the Modi government," sources said.

The BJP chief also met former chief minister and All India NR Congress founder N Rangasamy, whose party has already pledged support to NDA Presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind. Three of the four AIADMK (Amma) faction legislators, led by A Anbalagan and AIADMK MP from Puducherry N Gokulakrishnan, also met the BJP chief. He will visit Auroville on Tuesday before wrapping up his visit.