In Chhattisgarh, PM Modi builds anti-Congress narrative around graft, liquor scam

“The Congress betrayed the women of Chhattisgarh. They promised to ban liquor, instead they did corruption of crores and the money from the corruption went into the account of the Congress party,” he said.

Without naming any Congress leader, PM Modi took a dig at the power tussle between Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Deputy Chief Minister T S Singh Deo. An informal power-sharing deal was purportedly struck between Baghel and Singh Deo after the party won the 2018 Assembly polls.

“Due to the fight over liquor scam money, the 2.5-year CM seat formula could not be implemented. Congress sees Chhattisgarh as an ATM. Now you can understand in the past three to four years during elections in India why Congress was giving responsibilities to its leaders from Chhattisgarh. The last four years show the Congress cannot breathe without corruption and it is their ideology,” Modi added.

Apart from the coal levy scam, PM Modi claimed the sand mafia and land mafia were active in Chhattisgarh. He said work to build houses for the poor lost pace during the Congress rule. “When the BJP was in power, every year 2 lakh houses were made for the poor but since the Congress came to power, not even 1 lakh houses are made every year. They are playing games with paddy procurement. It was the central government that bought 80% of paddy from the state. In the last nine years, BJP central government has given over 1 lakh crore to paddy farmers. Even this year, 22,000 crores have been given to farmers. The Congress is betraying and lying to paddy farmers,” he said.

“Chhattisgarh government has become a model of Congress’ corruption and bad governance. The two who are known to be corrupt and were at loggerheads are finding ways to come together. They think by doing this they will scare Modi. If they are a guarantee of corruption then Modi is a guarantee of acting on corruption. Any wrongdoer will not be spared. I have the courage to say this is because whatever I have is given by people and the country,” the PM said.

Comparing the BJP and the Congress, Modi also spoke about development, health, infrastructure and the tribal community. He said the BJP government at the Centre spends over Rs 7,000 crore on two rail corridors and highway projects which will create employment. “We made twice as many roads than the Congress did. About 40 lakh people got free treatment by using Ayushmaan card. We gave free ration during Covid and continue to give it for free.

“We made a ministry of tribal welfare and made Eklavya model schools. We declared Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur as aspirational districts and worked on them. We are making major efforts to end sickle cell anemia. Blood bank, bone marrow transplant and screening services are being provided to stop the disease from being passed on to future generations,” said Modi.

Before commencing his speech, PM Modi expressed grief over the death of three persons in a road accident while on their way to Raipur to attend his rally.