BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Tuesday addressed three election rallies and launched yet another scathing attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. He sought 300 plus seats from the people of the country.

In a rally at Padal Ground in Mandi, Modi said the country had been mercilessly looted and brought on the brink of bankruptcy by the mother-son duo Government in New Delhi and the development of Himachal Pradesh had been badly retarded by the husband-wife team of Pratibha Singh and Virbhadra Singh.

The rally proved to be a massive success as the big ground seemed small to accommodate the large gathering which gathered to listen to the BJP leader. They were seen on adjoining hillock and roof-tops in pin-drop silence.

Overwhelmed by the response, Modi said that many had not imagined such an unprecedented and historic rally in a small town of temples in Himachal Pradesh. A new history was being created in this hill town, he added.

Pointing at the ruling Congress leaders, he said those born with a silver spoon in their mouths can never realise the scourge and pangs of the poor. Modi lauded the mothers of Himachal Pradesh who were producing one of the largest number of soldiers in the country for the Army and added that he saluted the mothers and the sacred soil of Himachal for the development of which the successive Congress Governments had done pretty little. In the course of defending country or facing the attacks of terrorists or Maoists the soldiers of Himachal Pradesh had been on the forefront in laying down their lives, and I salute them, he said.

The BJP’s PM candidate lamented that the vast tourism potential of the panoramic hill State had not been properly harnessed. “It could have become a better tourist destination in the world than Switzerland,” he bemoaned. Modi made a solemn promise to the people of Himachal Pradesh that if God blessed him with an opportunity, he would work hard to make Himachal Pradesh a dream destination in the world.

“I want to serve the people as a servant,” he added. Trying to strike an emotional chord with the people in Himachal Pradesh, he repeatedly chanted the famous quote of martyr Vikram Batra “Ye Dil Mange More” in his home town. Batra, who fought the 1999 Kargil war, was awarded Param Vir Chakra (PVC), the highest military honour, posthumously.