Peddadevulapalli, Nalgonda: BJP national president Amit Shah on Tuesday asserted that Telangana state would be the stepping stone for the party’s foray into South India.

He also said that while the Narendra Modi government is working for ‘Vikas’ and ‘Jan Kalyan’, at the same time it has stood like a rock when faced with external threats and raised the morale of armed forced with surgical strikes.

“I personally feel Telangana should be the beginning of the BJP’s foray into South India. The party should be strengthened from here. The way Telangana unit (BJP) is functioning since the past two years and trying to strengthen party in every village, I am confident that BJP will form the government too in 2019 ,” he said.

Amit Shah addressed BJP’s polling booth committee members after interacting with some households on the second day of his tour of Nalgonda district.

He said that he was glad that of the 3,000 residents of the village, 80 per cent attended the meeting.

The BJP national president said that the state would play a major role in the NDA government’s vikas yatra (journey of development).

Under the vistar yatra programme, the party would be strengthened from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari and Assam to Gujarat, he said.

Slamming the TRS government for the second day, Amit Shah said: “Friends, we are not far away from Hyderabad, but when I visited the villages I found drinking water scarcity, lack of toilet, farmlands destroyed due to chemical factories, no jobs, idle youth, women, widows facing pension problems. I am sure Telangana government has failed in taking the schemes launched by the Centre to the people.”

He said that the Modi government had introduced several schemes for the poor, Dalits, adivasis, women, farmers, workers and youth in the last three years, all aimed at their uplift.