Shahdol (MP):Shahdol: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that it was not the poor who suffered because of the currency ban, but it was a single family of the Congress which was hit hard by the move.

Addressing a rally here ahead of the November 28 polls in Madhya Pradesh, Modi said the Congress, which was seeking an account of the BJP government's performance, should explain what it did for the state during its over five-decade rule.

PM Modi further asserted that he was "ready for a contest between the performance of 'four generations' of the Nehru-Gandhi family and that of 'four years of a chaiwala', and claimed that his government provided the poor people with amenities like access to banks, power and LPG which the Congress was unable to do during its 55-year rule.

“People wondered how a chaiwala who became the Prime Minister could arrange so much money for developmental works including the establishment of IITs, AIIMS, road and rail network and so on,” said PM Modi.

In a scathing attack, PM Modi said, “Whatever piles of money the four generations of Congress had accumulated and was hiding, I brought all this to banks through demonetisation, he said. It was all public money, which is now being utilized for building toilets, roads and growing irrigation facilities. This is the reason behind their unease.”

Modi said his government has ensured that every poor in the country has a bank account and it was done in just four years, while the Congress gave the slogan of 'garibi hatao' (eradicate poverty) in early 1970s, but did nothing. "Indira Gandhi had carried out nationalisation of banks with an aim to ensure that all have access to the banking facilities. But the poor did not benefit. Now this government has ensured that all poor have bank accounts and we did it in just four years," he said.

Hitting back at Gandhi, who termed demonetisation as the biggest scam in the history of independent India during a rally in the state, Modi said "only those Congress leaders, who earned money unfairly, are crying" over the note ban and not the common man. Modi said that the common man was no longer hassled due to the note-ban exercise announced by him on November 8, 2016. "They did face problems earlier and even we have said so, but not now," he said.

Calling Congress leaders "jhooth ke shehanshah" (king of lies), he alleged that their actions belie their words and it was "part of the Congress' character". Without naming anyone, Modi said, "In Parliament, too, Congress leaders talk of love, but express anger in Madhya Pradesh."

"What they were unable to do in 55 years, we have done in four years including in (providing) electricity, LPG and roads, among other things," he said, listing the achievements of his government.

He showered praises on the MP government claiming that the state was number one in implementation of the Rural Housing Scheme and lauded CM Shivraj’s stern approach in bringing the rape victims to justice through speedy trials.

Criticizing the recent manifesto of Congress, he said almost 62% promises of the previous Congress government could never come out of the manifesto booklet.

In a veiled reference to the reservation debate, PM Modi claimed many elections have taken place on the basis of caste and creed but from now on, “only development would be the agenda in elections.”

With the rallies in Shahdol and Gwalior, PM Modi on Friday started his five-day campaigning in Madhya Pradesh.