BJP rare party with ideology, internal democracy: Amit Shah

BJP president Amit Shah on Friday said there is no internal democracy in the Congress as everyone knows who will be its President after Sonia Gandhi while BJP is one of the few parties where internal democracy is still alive.

Addressing a gathering of BJP MLAs, MPs and other office bearers of Madhya Pradesh, Shah said: "It is because of that internal democracy that a small party worker with no political background became the President of the biggest political party of the world based solely on his work and loyalty to the party." Shah is on a three-day visit to Madhya Pradesh.

Making a veiled attack on the Congress, he added that when internal democracy is alive in a party, its leader is chosen based on his potential and qualities unlike others where the leader is decided by the "family".

"Everybody knows that who will be Congress President after Sonia Gandhi... but no one knows who will be BJP's President after me... this shows that internal democracy in Congresss has ended and it is alive in BJP," he said.

"And when the decision is taken based on the family, quality is compromised and democracy suffers. A party that has no internal democracy cannot make the nation's democracy successful," he said.

Shah added that the BJP was the only other party in India, apart from the Communist Party, which runs on ideology.

"The journey of our party has been based on ideology which has brought us where we stand today," he said.

Shah said all BJP's national programmes -- struggle for ban on cow slaughter, Kutch Satyagraha, Goa Mukti Sangram, Hyderabad andolan, struggle against Article 370 -- were based on ideology and "aimed at solving problems of the people".

"When a party runs on ideology, it moves forward and also takes the nation forward."

Shah added that whenever there has been a BJP government in any state, it has developed faster compared to other states, and so is the case at the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said the Modi government doesn't take "populist decisions that please people but hard decisions that are for betterment of the people".

"No other government could have taken decision on GST, demonetisation. We also want votes, we also worry about people's anger. But BJP is not in politics only to contest elections."

"Our goal is not to win elections. Winning elections is only a path towards our goals," he said.