UP campaign kicks off: Narendra Modi talks ‘vikas’, Amit Shah ‘exodus’ in Kairana

Shah said that the Congress and BSP would not defeat the SP. “SP, BSP and Congress get united against the government in Parliament to prevent Modi from working,” he said.

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Addressing the Parivartan rally in Allahabad after the party’s national executive committee meeting, Modi said that UP would not develop and grow until that “loot ki thekedari” (contract to loot) is ended. Modi said that in the Mayawati government, Mulayam’s party (SP) made allegations of corruption but no action was taken during the SP’s rule. Similarly, Mayawati, too, made allegations against SP but her government took no action when it was in power.

Asking people to give the BJP an opportunity to rule the state, Modi said: “If I will do any thing for my personal interest in five years, you can kick me out.”

“UP has so much power that if it grows once, India will become the No. 1 nation,” Modi said, adding that UP needed to be protected from hooliganism and “bhai-bhatijawaad” (politics of dynasty), casteism and communalism.

When Modi launched the Lok Sabha election campaign in 2013, he sought blessings of the Ganga in Varanasi. Today, he turned to both Ganga and Yamuna and referred to their confluence at Sangam in Allahabad.

With several young men in the crowd, some of them waving posters demanding the PM’s intervention in the management of competitive examinations, Modi promised change. Claiming that “vikas” was the solution to every problem, he said that he would not let the young “ruin their life because of corruption and bhai-bhatijawaad.” In this context, he slammed the alleged corruption in exams for jobs in the state and said that the NDA government had done away with interviews in certain categories of government jobs to give merit a better chance.

He claimed that when Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh led the BJP government in UP, development was their priority.

With the top brass of the party and its Chief Ministers on stage, Modi claimed that BJP-ruled states were models for vikas. He said that UP had sent the most Prime Ministers but 1529 villages didn’t have electricity when the NDA was formed in 2014. “This darkness of UP does not let me sleep because I am an MP from this state. Of these 1529, electricity has been provided to 1352 villages, only 177 are left,” Modi said.

He said that UP gets Rs 1 lakh crore from the Centre but he wasn’t sure if it reaches the people.

He asked the gathering to greet the people of Assam for electing the BJP by switching on their cellphone’s torchlights.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said there was no government in UP — two police officers were killed when they went to evacuate land from encroachers in Mathura. He said that he would order a CBI inquiry into the matter if the state government wants a fair probe.