BodeliPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at the Congress over its ‘remove poverty’ campaign of the past, claiming that poverty has actually increased under the grand old party’s rule as it only raised slogans and did not get people to do any concrete work for them. Misled instead of doing. He was addressing a rally in Bodeli town of Chhota Udepur district in Gujarat, where the second phase of assembly elections are due on December 5.
“For decades, the Congress has been saying only one thing – garibi hatao (remove poverty). People gave you the power to do this, but you were asking people to remove poverty. The only thing they did was raise slogans. Making promises and misleading people. That was the reason poverty actually increased during its rule,” Modi alleged.
He said that poor citizens could not play an active role in the economy due to the policies of the previous Congress-led government.
The Prime Minister claimed that the Congress during its government did not give priority to poor people, tribals and people from Other Backward Class (OBC) communities in education, health and industrial sector.
Referring to the election of Draupadi Murmu as President earlier this year, Modi alleged that the opposition party was not in favor of a tribal woman occupying the country’s top constitutional post and hence fielded its own candidate.
“She (Murmu) is the pride of every tribal family and every citizen. But Congress had opposed her candidature. They didn’t want a tribal woman as the President of India. So they have put up a candidate against her. Otherwise, she would have.” unanimously elected,” he said.
In the first phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections, voting is being held on 89 out of total 182 seats in the state on Thursday. The remaining 93 seats, including Kalol, will go to polls in the second phase on December 5.