Prime Minister Modi accuses Congress of ‘polarising voters’ and attempting to divide the people on ‘caste and religious lines’ in pollbound Gujurat
- BJP Leader has been performing a ‘campaign blitzkrieg’ as Gujurat polls loom
- Modi hit at Congress over the upcoming election of its president, alleging that the opposition party has a history of rigging elections
- He lashed out over criticism of the government’s ambitious bullet train project and told opposition to ‘roam on bullock carts’
- See more news from India at www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome
As part of his campaign blitzkrieg in poll-bound Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Congress of seeking to divide the people on caste and religious lines.
He also hit out at the Congress over the upcoming election of its president, alleging that the opposition party has a history of rigging (organisational) elections.
‘If one doesn’t have democracy in his home (party), how can the person practice it in the country,’ he said the outcome of the election to the top post in the Congress is a foregone conclusion.
PM Narendra Modi being felicitated during an election campaign rally in Surendranagar on Sunday ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections
He also lashed out at the Congress over its criticism of the government’s ambitious bullet train project, saying if the opposition party has a problem with it, it could roam around on bullock carts.
‘The people of Gujarat know what the Congress is up to. It changes colour time and again, creates a wall between brothers, it wants to make urban areas fight with rural areas of the country, illiterate fight with literates and poor fight with the rich,’ he said.
Modi claimed the party made one caste fight with the other, one religion fight with another.
‘They keep you busy in fighting with each other. You may die but the Congress will eat ‘malai’ (cream),’ he said, launching a broadside against the opposition party apparently for having an alliance with caste leaders such as Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakor ahead of the state polls.
‘But, they do not understand that all these diseases were cured in Gujarat from the day when the BJP came to power in the state, and the state is firmly on the path of development, the prime minister asserted.
‘They (Congress) have a pain that Gujarat is progressing rapidly. When I was the chief minister, no day passed when they had not taken a step to harm Gujarat,’ he said.
Sharpening his attack on Congress leaders such as former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram, he told a rally in Bharuch district that by opposing the bullet train, the party stooped to a such a level that it was opposing the country’s development.
Adulation: A boy wearing a saffron cap attends a BJP rally as Prime Minister Modi speaks at Surendranagar on Sunday
Recently, Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram, during their visit to Gujarat, had said the bullet train project was among the NDA government’s misplaced priorities.
Resuming his campaign in his home state, where the first phase of Assembly elections is to be held on 9 December, Modi said:
‘Dr Manmohan Singhji, your government had made an announcement before 2012 (Gujarat Assembly) elections from Delhi about the bullet train, but your talks with Japan did not go down well as the loan Japan was offering we could not afford,’ he said.
However Modi said his government negotiated the loan at a very low interest rate and the work on the bullet train has started.