PUNE: BJP national president Amit Shah on Saturday said his party was all set to make inroads in Sharad Pawar’s bastion Baramati in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a day after the NCP chief dropped hint at joining the poll fray from Madha in Solapur.Shah claimed that the BJP alliance would outperform Rahul Gandhi-led Congress and Pawar-led NCP in Maharashtra by winning 45 seats, including Baramati. He challenged Pawar to compare his performance as the Union agriculture minister with the steps initiated by the BJP to redress the plight of farmers.“Sharad Pawar should submit details about foodgrain procured during his tenure and then compare it with the procurement done by the BJP-led government at the minimum support price,” Shah said, addressing a gathering of the BJP’s booth-level workers from Pune, Baramati and Shirur Lok Sabha constituencies.The BJP had won the Pune seat in the 2014 elections by dislodging the Congress. Baramati was retained by the NCP, while Shirur by the Shiv Sena Shah said the Congress-NCP government had waived off farmers’ loans worth Rs 53,000 crore only once and it had benefitted around 3 crore farmers. “The BJP has done much more,” he said, claiming that 13 crore farmers would get an assured income support worth Rs 75,000 crore per year under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sanman Nidhi’, declared in the recent Union Budget.“The total financial aid to farmers during the next 10 years would be Rs 7.5 lakh crore. It would be way ahead than what the Congress and the NCP had given to the farmers during their 10-year stint,” he said.Shah said the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra spent over Rs 75,000 crore on irrigation schemes, but the farmers did not get water. In contrast, the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government implemented the Jalyukta Shivar scheme spending just Rs 6,500 crore and it helped increase the water availability across Maharashtra.Asserting that the BJP was committed to build a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya , Shah said, “Both Pawar and Ashok Chavan (state Congress chief) should spell out their stand on Ram temple construction before the elections.”Shah said the 2019 polls would be against dynastic politics and caste polarisation. He appealed to the party workers not to be afraid of the “Mahagathbandhan” (of the Congress and regional political parties) and said the BJP would register a significant win not only in Uttar Pradesh, but also in states like West Bengal and Kerala.Chief minister Fadnavis and the BJP’s Raosaheb Danve were confident about the party’s better performance in the forthcoming elections in Maharashtra. “Last time, we lost the Baramati seat by a very small margin. Had we fought the election on Lotus symbol in 2014, things would have been different. This time, we will contest on the party’s symbol,” Fadnavis said.

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