india

Updated: May 04, 2019 23:22 IST

Dismissing the Congress as a “vote cutter” party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the grand old party has now stooped to maligning his honesty and hard work.

Addressing a rally in Pratapgarh on the last day of campaigning for the fifth phase of national elections, Modi said till the first phase, Congress leaders were looking at the prime minister’s post. “But after four phases of polling, they have themselves started confessing that they had been reduced to the status of ‘vote cutter’,” Modi said.

He said the Opposition was not able to accept the mandate given by the people to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the four phases of polling so far. “Desperate Opposition is now trying everything up their sleeves to keep Modi out of power,” the Prime Minister said.

Modi also accused Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav of cheating his Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati by benefitting from her vote bank and falsely promising her the PM’s chair. “However, after realising the SP-Congress game, Mayawati has been openly criticising the

Congress while Akhilesh prefers to remain silent. Congress leaders are even attending SP rallies,” he said.

“If they [Opposition] see the crowd in my meetings, they will be rattled. I have never seen so many people gathering for a political cause in the month of May,” said Modi, in a choked voice.

Referring to the SP-BSP alliance as “maha milavati [adulterated]”, the PM said there were five major risks associated with such an alliance — corruption, instability, casteism, dynastic rule, and misgovernance.

Dubbing Congress president Rahul Gandhi as “naamdar”, Modi said the Congress president has accepted that his motive was to malign his image by harping on false issues. “Naamdar, listen to me. Modi has grown up eating dust of ‘Bharat mata’ and has lived for ‘Bharat mata’. You cannot destroy my penance though any interview on a television channel. This country forgives mistakes but not deceits,” he added.

He also accused the Congress of not doing anything for the poor. “Rahul [Gandhi] wants proof of Modi’s works. Rahul, we just completed five years. Your family was in power for so many years. What has your government done? First, give an account of that. You ruled for 55 years, but you did not give affordable medical treatment to the poor,” he said.

In Basti, Modi said the opposition parties were desperate to grab power but Delhi will be far from their reach. “People will reject the selfish parties who insulted our jawans, as the conscience of country has awoken. They will now vote on the basis of ‘Niyat and Niti’ [policy and intention],” said Modi while seeking support for BJP candidates from Basti, Siddharthnagar and Sant Kabeernagar.