BHOPAL: Accusing the Congress of seeking votes by exploiting the sentiments of the poor and dividing the society on the caste lines, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday observed that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had already conceded defeat in the upcoming state elections.
“Gehlot knows that the countdown of the Congress government has started. He in a way has congratulated the BJP by publicly requesting that the welfare schemes should not be stopped. I assure you that the BJP will not stop any scheme of public interest but will try to improve it. This is Modi’s guarantee,” Modi said, reacting to the Rajasthan Chief Minister’s demand that Modi should give a “guarantee” that the Congress government’s schemes will not be discontinued if the BJP comes to power in the state.
Addressing a public rally in Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, the Prime Minister indicated the BJP will not project its chief ministerial face right now. “The BJP will contest the Assembly election on the party’s election symbol, the lotus,” he said. Before the public rally, the Prime Minister also offered prayers at Sanwaliya temple.
He also attacked the Gehlot government over corruption and women’s safety, and said that it “pained” him whenever atrocities took place against daughters anywhere in the country. “But the Congress has made this a tradition here,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister alleged that it is not possible to celebrate any festival peacefully in Rajasthan because of the anti-development environment created by the Congress. “The BJP will bring prosperity, employment and development to the state, besides ensuring the safety of women,” he asserted.
Addressing a public rally in Gwalior, Modi observed that “the Congress’ vision that its future lies in the glorification of one family has remained unchanged in the last six decades.”
He said that the Congress had an anti-development mindset and the party had no roadmap for development. The party was not able to digest the growing stature of the country in the world.
“When the world sees the future in India, they (Congress) see their future in politics. They (Congress) appear not comfortable with the growing stature of the country at the international level”, he said.
Modi said that his government has developed the country as the fifth largest economy in the world in the last nine years and set a target to make it to the top three economies in the world in the coming five years.
“They (Congress) got the opportunity (to rule the country) for 60 years. What they could not do in 60 years, we did it in nine years”, he said.
He said that corruptions, scandals, crimes and atrocities on women and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people marked the six-decade-rule of Congress in the country. He cited the housing scheme of the previous Congress government at the Centre to drive his point home.
Modi said that the previous Congress government in Madhya Pradesh had pushed the state to backwardness, reducing it to a ‘Bimaru’ (laggard) state. But, the BJP government in the state has turned the ‘Bimaru’ MP into one of the ten best developed states in the country.
