In UP, Modi keeps focus on Mulayam

Beginning his speech by invoking Atal Bihari Vajpyee, who was an MP from Lucknow for four consecutive terms, Modi said he had learnt a lot from the former prime minister. Vajpayee often said that the route to power in Delhi passes through Lucknow, he added.

Highlighting that he belonged to a backward caste, Modi said that the BJP was a democratic party that had projected him as the prime ministerial candidate despite the fact that he had been a tea vendor.

The meeting concluded the first phase of the party’s election campaign in Uttar Pradesh. The Lucknow rally was the eighth addressed by Modi in the state.

Modi appealed to the people to not allow parties to destroy “the legacy of Lucknow”. “Sounds of fireshots from katta (countrymade pistols) have replaced the sound of music here. They have made the Gomti river a drain.”

Quoting from Mulayam’s speech in Allahabad earlier on Sunday, Modi said the SP chief appeared to have accepted defeat. “Mulayam today urged not to compete with Modi’s rallies on crowd numbers. It is his first defeat. He also asked partymen to compete with the BJP on development issue. It is his second defeat as finally he had to follow politics of development rather than vote bank politics,” Modi said.

The Gujarat Chief Minister had targeted Mulayam and son Akhilesh at his Gorakhpur rally too, on January 23. In all his rallies, the SP chief has also made the BJP and particularly Modi the focus of his attack. Sunday was the fourth time Mulayam and Modi addressed rallies the same day.

The Lucknow rally ground, that has a capacity to hold five lakh people, was packed, with party leaders claiming that nearly as many were on roads outside the ground.

Modi accused Mulayam of telling lies about Gujarat, saying: “Instead of criticising Gujarat, Netaji should tell about the work the SP government has done in UP.” He invited the SP chief to visit Gujarat to see the 24-hour power supply in villages there. “In UP, reservation is there in power supply too. People get 24-hour supply in Netaji’s constituency whereas public at other places do not,” he said.

Modi also noted that while more than 150 riots had taken place in the one year government of Akhilesh in Uttar Pradesh, no riots had occurred or curfew clamped in Gujarat in the past 10 years.

He also referred to Uttar Pradesh’s criminal record, saying 45 per cent of all serious crimes in the country took place in the state, because of “rowdyism” of SP leaders. In one year, crime had increased in the state by 240 per cent, he said.

Making more comparisons with Gujarat, Modi said that while per capita income in Uttar Pradesh was Rs 26,000, it was Rs 75,000 in his state. When the Uttar Pradesh government had asked him for lions, he had given them those, he added.

Modi also noted that Amul dairy network had now come to Uttar Pradesh — Akhilesh last week laid foundation stone of two Amul milk processing plants. “If you cannot see development in Gujarat, why did you bring Amul to UP?” Modi said.

While the SP government did nothing to promote local industries, Modi said, just the business of kites in Gujarat, involving Muslims, had increased in worth to Rs 500 crore from Rs 35 crore under him.

While not naming Salman Khurshid, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Beni Prasad Verma — Union ministers belonging to the state — he hinted that all three were corrupt.

Earlier, BJP national president Rajnath Singh asserted that no leader had faced so much criticism in Indian history as Modi. “What crime has Modi done that political opponents are targeting him for the past 12 years?” Rajnath said.

Rajnath as well as former Army chief General V K Singh, who also addressed the rally, blamed the UPA government for the death of two Navy officers in an accident aboard INS Sindhuratna.

SP MP with Modi on the dais

Samajwadi Party MP from Kaiserganj Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh Sunday appeared on the stage with Narendra Modi at BJP’s Lucknow rally. Singh is yet to formally join the BJP and reportedly attended the rally on the party’s invitation.

The four-time MP had won 2009 Lok Sabha election from Kaiserganj on the SP ticket and was announced by the party as its candidate again for the coming 2014 elections. But Singh refused to contest on SP ticket recently, triggering speculations that he may join the BJP. ENS