Amit Shah addressing a public meeting in Puducherry’s Karaikal

NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday accused Congress leader V Narayanasamy of turning Puducherry into an “ATM for the Gandhi family” during his tenure as chief minister of the poll-bound Union territory.The senior BJP leader also alleged that the Narayanasamy administration “sold” PG and diploma seats, including those for reserved category candidates, to “wealthy individuals.”Narayanasamy served as chief minister from June 2016 to February 2021.“Narayanasamy’s government had turned Puducherry into an ATM for the Gandhi family. They openly auctioned PG and diploma seats and even sold the reserved seats for SC and ST to wealthy individuals for the sake of money. Transport mafias were given free rein to trouble the public,” Shah said at a public meeting in Puducherry’s Karaikal.The former BJP president added that Congress leader’s tenure as chief minister was marked by “corruption and chaos,” which the BJP — part of the All India NR Congress-led incumbent government — has worked to eliminate.He further asserted that the saffron party’s focus is now on transforming Puducherry into a developed Union territory over the next five years.“For five years, the Congress government created an environment of corruption and chaos here. In five years, we eliminated corruption and transformed chaos into order, and now it is time to transform Puducherry into a developed Puducherry in the next five years. Earlier, the decisions regarding Puducherry were taken by the Gandhi family in Delhi; now the decisions regarding Puducherry are being taken by Puducherry itself,” Shah told the gathering.Noting that the BJP-All India NR Congress alliance secured 44% of the vote in the 2021 Puducherry assembly elections, he set a target of 60% for the upcoming polls, expected in April.“PM Narendra Modi has worked to make India prosperous as well as secure. The people of Puducherry have expressed their trust in the NDA, BJP, and our leader N Rangaswamy and PM Modi. In the 2021 assembly elections, the people of Puducherry gave us 44% of the votes. This time, the alliance of BJP, AINRC and AIADMK is aiming to secure 60% of the votes,” he added.(With ANI inputs)