Urging the people in Haryana to vote the ruling BJP to power for a third straight term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Congress stands for the "guarantee of corruption, casteism, communalism and nepotism". In a message on X on the last day of campaigning in Haryana before the assembly polls on October 5, Modi blasted the Congress for its alleged divisive and negative politics which, he said, the patriotic people of the state will never accept.
"The Congress means a syndicate of fixers and son-in-law," he said in an apparent reference to controversial land deals involving Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra when the party was in power during 2004-14 with Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the chief minister. The main goal of father-son politics is only self-interest, he said, clearly targeting Hooda and his MP son Deepender Singh Hooda. Modi also asserted that Congress leaders are involved in a factional fight. People know that the party can never provide a stable government, he added.
"People of Haryana are also feeling hurt as the entire state is being insulted at the behest of two families sitting in Delhi and Haryana," Modi claimed.
People are witnessing the failure of Congress governments in states like Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Congress' policies destroy people and that is why they do not want the party in Haryana at all, he said. Leaders of the Congress, Modi said, have bared their intentions by speaking in favour of ending reservation when Dalits and backward classes are already angry with the party for its inability to prevent caste violence.
People have made up their minds to punish the party once more. The BJP in its 10 years of government in Haryana worked relentlessly to improve people's lives and prioritised the welfare of every section of society, be it farmers, youth, women, villages or cities, he said.
"We have brought Haryana out of the era of scams and riots seen during the Congress governments," he said. One voice that is echoing everywhere in Haryana is "bharosa dil se, Bhajpa phir se" (BJP once more).
The prime minister exhorted people to vote for the BJP, saying it is very important that they elect a government that strengthens India at a time when the entire world is looking at the country with hope and expectations. The Congress can never strengthen the country, he said.
