One alliance is growth-focused, other rooted in corruption: Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday likened the upcoming general elections to the battle of Mahabharata, and said people will have to choose between the "Kauravas", represented by the Congress-led INDIA bloc, and the "Pandavas", represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

"India has to choose between a dynamic and development-oriented alliance, whose leader does not have any blemish of corruption and an alliance that's rooted in corruption and dynastic politics," Shah said, while speaking at the BJP's national council meet.

The senior BJP leader, who is considered as the party's chief election strategist, used the battle from the Hindu epic - fought among members of the same dynastic clan where the Kauravas represented the unvirtuous and the Pandavas stood for principles - as an allegory to define the present-day electoral contest between the NDA and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

Shah also moved a political resolution, "BJP-Desh Ki Asha, Vipaksh Ki Hatasha (BJP-nation's hope and opposition's frustration)", on the occasion, which was seconded by Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda.

In a sharp attack on the INDIA bloc, which he referred to as the "Ghamandia Gathbandhan (arrogant alliance)", Shah said: "INDIA bloc is an alliance of seven family-based parties. The leaders of these parties have not changed in the last four generations," he said.