Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday asserted that the BJP would stay in power for the next 30 years, arguing that the party's strength lay in its grassroots connect and its ability to address people's concerns.
Taking aim at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Shah accused him of bringing party workers from other states to Delhi to stage protests, saying such demonstrations could not overturn the people's mandate in favour of the BJP.
"People of the country understand you. You cannot hear me because you are sitting somewhere abroad and you don't even explain why you are abroad. It is alright, as it is your private life," Shah said, taking a dig at the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha over his unannounced foreign visits.
Rahul Gandhi was not going to have a chance of coming to power even in the next 30 years, he said. "Crores of BJP workers and Prime Minister Modi exist among the people, understand their concerns and work continuously to solve them."
Referring to recent opposition protests led by him against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged vote theft, Shah said, "You cannot belie the country's mandate through political machinations and mobocracy."
He said that if the Congress and Rahul wanted to win elections, they needed to go to the people, address their concerns and run schemes for their welfare in the states where the party ruled.
"Otherwise, whatever is left of you will also vanish and nobody will be able to stop it," he said, attacking Rahul Gandhi.
The Union home minister said an altogether different political game was being played out in Delhi at present by opposition parties, including the Congress.
"The BJP is coming to power one after another. Pained by this, they have come up with the 'excuse' of vote theft, saying the BJP does not have the mandate and it steals votes," Shah said.
The Congress and its allies, under the pretext of vote theft, want to protect infiltrators in the country, he charged, adding that these parties, despite making excuses -- first EVM tampering and now vote theft -- had been out of power in several states for decades.
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Shah said the Congress had been out of power in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh for 41 years, in West Bengal for 54 years and in Tamil Nadu for 64 years, while it had been unable to form full-majority governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for 28 years.
"All this happened before Narendra Modi was at the helm," Shah pointed out, asserting that the BJP would remain in power for 30 years despite the opposition's allegations of vote theft.
"Amit Shah was born here, lives here and will die here. I don't have to go abroad every six months," he said.
The way the Congress and Rahul Gandhi were practising "negative politics", they would not be able to form a government till 2030, he claimed, rebutting allegations of vote theft.
The Congress won elections in Himachal Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala and said nothing about the Election Commission or the voter lists, but levelled allegations whenever it lost elections, Shah said, accusing the party of adopting double standards.
Shah also alleged that drug trafficking flourished under the AAP regime in Punjab and that the people of the state were going to bring in a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
He warned Kejriwal that the "politics of excuses" would not last long and that results were expected from a government.
He also asserted that after forming its government in Punjab, the NDA would end drug trafficking in the state.