‘Adopted son’ Modi vows not to desert Uttar Pradesh

Invoking Lord Krishna at an election meeting here to suggest a strong connect between Gujarat and UP, Modi, who represents Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, said the state was his ‘mai-baap ’ (parents) and he will not desert it. 

“Lord Krishna was born in UP and made Gujarat his ‘karam bhoomi’ (land of work). I was born in Gujarat and UP has adopted me. Uttar Pradesh is my ‘mai-baap’. I am not the son who would betray his ‘maibaap’. You have adopted me and it is my duty to work for you,” he said in an emotional speech at a poll rally here in Hardoi. 

“Vote for a full majority to BJP government. I promise to show you the ways of all the problems you are facing within five years,” he said, telling the impressive crowd that all pollsters have predicted BJP getting massive support in the first two phases of polling. Highlighting the problems faced by the state and its national importance, Modi said poverty will be removed from the country only when it is eradicated from UP. 

“This is the land of Ganga and Yamuna where the land is most fertile with crores of labourers but poverty still exists here, why is this so? There is nothing wrong with the people here or their capabilities or shortage of resources,” he said. 

“It is the problem of the government’s lack of intention (which is responsible for it). SP, BSP and Congress have not thought as to how the state should be developed, all those who had been at the helm have only worked to safeguard their votebank, help them in whichever way possible, the future of UP cannot be changed till it is freed of SP, BSP and Congress,” he said. 

Continuing his attack on Akhilesh Yadav’s ‘kaam bolta hai ’ (work speaks) slogan, the Prime Minister spoke about some central schemes, which he said, were not implemented in Uttar Pradesh by the Samajwadi Party government. 

“The Centre brought a scheme for providing free power connections to 1.25 lakh poor families but funds are lying here and UP has extended it only 13,000 households. Will it harm Akhilesh if the poor families get it? Who is responsible? Is this how your work is speaking? “Your government is a failure. It is not working. Those who have run their government in this way do not have the right to survive for even a minute more,” he said. 

Modi said only 14 per cent farmers got the benefit of the Crop Insurance Scheme for farmers in UP “because Akhilesh does not feel it is any work. Jinka kaam bolta hai, unka kisan nahi bolta ki bima mila hai (Those whose work speaks, their farmer does not say that they got insurance),” he said.

The ongoing Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh is to end dynastic and caste-based politics, BJP chief Amit Shah said today in Amethi, the pocket borough of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Targeting Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, he said that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have entered into an ‘unholy alliance’.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is more interested in doing ‘ kaam ki baat ’ (practical work) rather than ‘ mann ki baat ’, SP candidate and his wife Dimple Yadav said on Thursday in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’. “Akhilesh Yadav mann ki baat nahi karte, balki kaam ki baat karte hain (Akhilesh Yadav believes in action rather than just words). The people should vote him to power again so that Uttar Pradesh continues to be on the development path,” she said at a rally.