PM Modi asks people not to waste their votes on Congress
Dhoraji (Gujarat): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday questioned the moral ground on which Congress is seeking votes in Gujarat when its leader was joined in his Bharat Jodo Yatra by a woman anti-Narmada activist who stalled the ambitious dam project for three decades.
Modi was referring to Narmada Bachao Andolan spearhead Medha Patkar joining the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra in Maharashtra on Saturday.
The Prime Minister hit the hustings on the second day of his campaigning for the next month's Assembly polls in his home state by taking darshan of Somnath temple in Veraval.
While canvassing for BJP candidates in the day, he appealed to voters to not waste their votes on Congress which doesn't have a roadmap for development and reject those who defame the state. He also said that all other parties in the country were compelled to speak about development during polls due to BJP.
He addressed four rallies in the key Saurashtra region at Veraval, Dhoraji, Amreli, and Botad. In the 2017 Assembly polls, the Congress had bagged 28 out of the 48 seats in this region which helped the Opposition party restrict BJP's victory count to 99 in the 182-member House.
The region has a sizable Patidar and Other Backward Class population and has the potential to tilt the power game in favour of or against the BJP in the next month's elections.
Addressing a poll rally in Dhoraji town in Rajkot district, Modi said the ambitious project of building Sardar Sarovar Dam over the Narmada river was delayed because many people had tried hard to stall it.
"The Narmada project was the only solution to quench the thirst of the arid region of Kutch and Kathiyawad (Saurashtra region). You must have seen yesterday how a Congress leader was doing padyatra with a woman, who was an anti-Narmada activist. She and others had stalled the project for three decades by creating legal hurdles" he said.
"When Congress leaders approach you to seek votes, I want you to ask them to explain on what moral ground the opposition party is seeking votes when their leader was doing padyatra with a woman who was against the Narmada project. I urge you to ask this question to Congress," he said.
Addressing a rally at Veraval town, the Prime Minister appealed to the people of Gir Somnath district to make BJP victorious in all the polling booths. He also urged the people to break all the previous records of voter turnout in the state elections.
