PM drums up support for BJP candidates
New Delhi: The BJP brought out its biggest trump card on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a mega rally at Ramlila Maidan to campaign for the seven candidates in Delhi. Modi started his speech by saying that BJP has led the NDA government with strength in the last five years.
Modi said that the construction of East and West Peripheral Expressways have been a crowning achievement for the people of Delhi. "Delhi used to be the transit point for trucks going through inter-state routes. After the expressways, the trucks reach their destination without having to pass through the Capital," he said.
He said that this has reduced traffic and pollution considerably in the city and that Delhi is set to have access to unparalleled infrastructure in the coming years. The PM of course took a dig at the AAP-led Delhi government, terming it as an example of a "nakaam model of governance". Modi said that the government in Delhi in the last four years has said no to development efforts carried out by the Central government and simultaneously failed at doing whatever they tried. "These people came here to change the country promising to fight corruption. Now, they themselves seem to have changed," he said. Modi also said that schemes like Ayushmaan Bharat save the lives of the poor by paying for their medical expenses. He accused the AAP government of playing with lives of the poor by not letting them avail benefits from this.
Moreover, Modi took his attack further, holding the Congress party "equally responsible" for the state of things in Delhi. He said that the party that has continued to rely on nepotism in politics can never imagine doing good for its electorate.
Responding to allegations that he refers to the Indian Army as his own, Modi said that former PM Rajiv Gandhi had used the navy's INS Viraat for family vacations as well, thus calling out the Congress' apparent hypocrisy. Also speaking at the rally, Chandni Chowk candidate Harsh Vardhan said that the public resoundingly wants Modi to become PM again and that will be proved on May 23.
