New Delhi: BJP Chief Amit Shah has attacked the Congress over dynasty politics saying internal democracy is missing in the party.Addressing a meeting of intellectuals in Lucknow, Shah said that a political party is being dominated by caste or family due to lack of internal democracy in it.

Shah drew parallels between the BJP and the Congress over who will be the next chief of the two parties.He asked the audience that who will succeed Sonia Gandhi in the Congress, to which the people responded saying Rahul Gandhi.

He then posed the same question about the BJP."Can anyone tell me who will be the next president of BJP? No one knows. A person with nirmalcharitra (pious character) will head the BJP. The president of BJP is not elected on the basis of dynasty, caste or religion, but on the basis of merit," Shah said.

"Internal democracy provides an opportunity for talent to develop naturally. In the absence of internal democracy in any political party, it ends up being run by gharanas (families). Among the 1,650 political parties in India, very few have internal democracy, and BJP is one of them," he said.

He said in the absence of internal democracy, a party cannot serve the purpose of democracy and incompetent heirs are chosen to head them.

"...Then these political parties become family-based or caste-based. Talent is not given any importance there, and talented people are sidelined. Parties like the SP and the BSP decide their waaris (heir). Sometimes there is a mistake in deciding the heir as well," the BJP chief said, apparently hinting at the falling out of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

He said principles and development should also be two vital characteristics of a political party."In absence of principles in a political party, casteism and family politics take over," Shah said.

He said the BJP is a party which follows "cultural nationalism", both in letter and spirit, and also believes in Antyodaya - a model which touches all sections of the society, and aims to disseminating the benefits of development to the last strata of the society.

"Since 1950 to 2017, in the journey from Jan Sangh to the BJP, the basic principle has been Antyodaya, integral humanism and cultural nationalism," Shah said.

He claimed states without a BJP government have been "taken over by scams, corruption and dynasty politics."