Ahead of elections in Madhya Pradesh later this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a BJP rally in Bhopal insisted that in order for the country to continue its march on the path of development, vote-bank politics needs to confront a roadblock. Launching a scathing attack on Congress in his speech, he said "Congress never ever thought about the welfare of Madhya Pradesh. Only if they would have thought, when they were in power for such a long time at Centre, they would have added to the state's progress.
Relentless in his attack, he continued "Yeh party Hindustan mein gathbandhan karne mein safal nahi ho rahi hai isliye Bharat ke bahar gathbandhan khoja ja raha hai. Duniya ke desh ab tay karenge ki Bharat mein PM kaun hoga. Congress party kya haal ho gaya hai aapka kya satta khone ke baad aapne santulan bhi kho diya," said Modi, according to news agency ANI. (The Congress party has failed to build an alliance in India, so it's seeking allies abroad. Will foreign countries now decide who will be India's prime minister? The Congress appears to have lost its balance after losing power.)
The 'Karyakarta Mahakumbh' (grand assembly of party workers) was organised to mark the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, the co-founder of BJP's fore-runner, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. An estimated 10 lakh party workers from 65,000 polling booths spread across 230 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh will take part in the programme, Rajnish Agrawal, a state BJP spokesman, said before the event.
The event will be the "world's largest congregation of political workers," said state BJP spokesman Sarvesh Tiwari a day before Modi's and BJP president Amit Shah's visit to the state capital.
Modi and Shah were in Bhopal just a week after Gandhi visited the state capital on September 17, holding a roadshow and later addressing Congress workers and office-bearers.
Along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram will also go to polls by the year-end.