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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that the country needed a “damdaar pradhan mantri” (strong PM) and that “jihadis” from across the border were supporting the INDIA bloc partners Samajwadi Party and the Congress.
Addressing a rally in the Ghosi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh while campaigning in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, Modi claimed that the INDIA bloc, if voted to power, will have a new prime minister every year, while trying to underline that “too many masons can spoil an under-construction house”.
Apart from Ghosi, he also addressed rallies in the Deoria and Mirzapur seats of Purvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh).
“The alliance of Opposition parties wants to turn the country’s majority community into ‘second-class citizens’. The SP and Congress are indulging in vote jihad,” he claimed.
Reminding the people of Purvanchal that they had been electing the country’s prime minister for the past 10 years, Modi asked, “How can a PM, who is worried about his own chair, provide a strong leadership to the nation? The SP-Congress’ INDIA alliance says they will have five prime ministers in five years. One does not even hire so many masons to build a house. They want to have five PMs since they want to share their earnings.”
The PM listed what he termed as three “big conspiracies” of the Opposition bloc and said, “First, the people of INDI alliance will change the Constitution and write in it afresh that reservation should be given on the basis of religion in India. Second, these INDI people will end the reservation given to SC, ST, OBC. Third, they will give the entire reservation to Muslims on the basis of religion,” Modi said.
Modi claimed the “INDI jamaat” has been abusing him for his opposition to reservation on the basis of religion.
“This (INDIA bloc) group is saying that if they come to power, they will reimpose Article 370 in Kashmir. They will repeal the CAA (Citizenship (Amendment) Act) which gives citizenship to the victims of Partition. Whose agenda is this… this is what these anti-India forces want?” he asked.
Alleging that the Samajwadi Party brought a bad name to Purvanchal, particularly Mirzapur, during its regime in UP, the PM praised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for “cleansing the state of the mafia” and taking forward his “cleanliness drive”.
“During the SP regime, the mafia was seen as a vote bank. At that time, people used to shiver in fear. But now, it’s the mafia that shivers in fear,” he claimed.
During the 2012 Assembly elections in the state, he said, the SP’s manifesto had promised to provide reservation to minorities in UP.
Though there is so much talent in the Yadav community, he said, the Yadavs of only one family get SP tickets to contest the elections due to their “pariwarvad” (dynastic politics).
Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari, the brother of gangster-turned politician late Mukhtar Ansari, is contesting on SP ticket from the Ghosi seat.
Seeking votes for NDA alliance candidate Arvind Rajbhar of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party from the seat, the Prime Minister said, “You are not electing an MP but the Prime Minister of the country.”
“Remember that every vote given to Arvind Rajbhar in Ghosi, Neeraj Shekhar (BJP) in Ballia and Ravindra Kushwaha (BJP) in Salempur will go to Modi,” he added.
The INDIA alliance, he alleged, was trying to create divisions among different communities — be it Dalits, Brahmins, Bhumihars, Baniyas, Yadavs, Kurmis or Kushwahas — for its own benefit. As part of a conspiracy, the alliance wanted to give reservation to Muslims, he claimed.
—With PTI inputs
