AGRA: Hitting out at the "tikdi", a term he used for Congress, Samajwadi Party and BSP at the Kanpur rally, BJP's present poster boy Narendra Modi at Agra on Thursday said that the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are born out of the sins of Congress's vote-bank politics.

The basic character of Congress is to divide people and establish its rule, Modi further said and added they divided the country during the time of Independence and they then went for dividing Vande Matram song into two.

Presenting SP and BSP as the mirror image of Congress, Modi said that however, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have stolen Congress' vote-bank politics and added their own colour.

Modi's attack on vote bank politics came at a time when SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav flaunted Muslim appeasement policy when he said that he has ensured a Muslim sub-inspector and a constable are posted at each of the police stations in the state. Interestingly, it was only on Thursday that the Supreme Court served notice to Mulayam's son Akhilesh-led state government for distributing community-specific compensation to the victims of Muzaffarnagar riots.

Taking a dig at SP and BSP, Modi said that now, there was a race on who would come first in this vote-bank politics. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the only nationalist party that believes in the politics of development and not vote-bank politics, Modi said, minutes after Laxmikant Bajpayi-led state BJP felicitated Muzaffarnagar riots accused BJP MLAs - Suresh Rana and Sangeet Singh Som on the main dais. The SP government had slapped NSA on both Rana and Som for instigating the mob during the violence, however, the same was overruled by the National Security Act Advisory Board paving way for the release of the two later on.

However, both Modi and national BJP chief Rajnath Singh , who had feigned ignorance about the state BJP plan a couple of days back while talking to mediapersons, had not arrived when the felicitation of the two MLAs a few party workers was done. All the more strange was the fact that the two MLAs had left the rally venue without listening to Modi's speech.

Later, while addressing a packed Kothi Meena Bazaar ground, Modi said that the BJP is the only nationalist party which believes in the politics of development and not vote-bank politics. "I assure people that we will wipe out the differences of class, caste and community prevalent in our society," Modi said.

Probably wary of the goof ups during his speeches on historical facts, Modi, unlike his earlier three rallies in the state, desisted from delving in detail on the historical facts attached to Agra or the Braj region. However, he stuck to his development plank based on Gujarat model.

Tourists flock to Agra due to Taj Mahal, yet the region had been lacking on development, Modi said and added that there was power crisis at a time when there was plenty of water in the state unlike in Gujarat. "But, We laid a pipeline to take water of the Narmada to our soldiers guarding the border with Pakistan. We laid the world's longest pipeline," Modi said and added: "It is so big that chief minister Akhilesh can drive a car through it in a Maruti car with his family.

He said that the state was reeling under power crisis, but the favoured constituencies were getting 24-hour electricity supply.

Holding the coalgate responsible for the power crisis, Modi said that power plants producing 20,000 mw electricity were forced to close due to shortage of coal that has been "devoured by Congress-led UPA II government at the Centre". When Supreme Court asked for the details of the coalgate, they said that the file related to it has gone missing, Modi said in a sarcastic tone and added its not the file that has gone missing but the life of the people of the country.

Modi also took a dig at foreign affairs minister Salman Khurshid without naming him. Salman represents Farrukhabad Lok Sabha seat from the state. He said that level of corruption in the country is such that when a minister's NGO was accused of swindling Rs 70 lakh, another minister in UPA II government said that it was unbelievable as the amount was only Rs 70 lakh.

He would have believed on the allegation if the amount had been Rs 70 crore, Modi, whose speech was much shorter as compared to that of earlier three rallies of Kanpur, Jhansi and Bahraich, said.

Also unlike the earlier three rallies, national BJP chief Rajnath Singh could make it to Agra rally with Modi, as the state BJP chief claimed that his plane was not allowed to take off from the Palam Airport in New Delhi. However, Singh reached the rally ground moments after Modi finished his speech. Singh also hit out at Centre for indulging in corruption and price rise.

