Opposition parties will fall flat in Lok Sabha polls: PM

Kushinagar/Deoria: As campaigning for Lok Sabha polls entered its final phase, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday predicted the defeat of the opposition parties, saying the people were voting for an effective government.

"Opposition parties will fall flat in polls. This is because people are voting for an effective and honest government," he said at an election rally in Kushinagar and later in Deoria in eastern UP which goes to polls in the last phase on May 19.

Attacking the SP-BSP alliance, Modi said he had been the chief minister of Gujarat more than the terms of Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati combined as Uttar Pradesh chief ministers, and there was no blot of corruption on him.

"Now these people have started demanding a certificate of my caste. I never indulge in caste politics and by your blessings, it was never needed. But when they are demanding a certificate, I tell them that I may have been born in an extremely backward caste, but my dream is to make India a frontrunner (in the world).

"To all casteist leaders I would like to say my only caste is poor, my only identity is poor. I have faced poverty, felt its pain and came out of poverty. And with the blessings of the poor, I have got the opportunity to serve the country," Modi said.