Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made an impassioned plea to voters to defeat the SP-Congress combine and the BSP, blaming these parties for the plight of Uttar Pradesh, as he wrapped up his hectic campaign for Assembly polls.
Addressing a rally at Khushipur village in Rohaniya assembly segment, 25 kms from the city, Modi, who has been campaigning in his lok Sabha constituency here for three days, repeated the promise of waiving farmers’ loans and restoring professionalism of the police force if BJP comes to power in the State. Describing himself as a person who “has experienced poverty and therefore wants to improve the lot of the poor”, the PM said his Government was aiming at providing houses to every single household in the country by 2022, when the country celebrates 75 years of Independence.
Modi began his 45-minute-long speech with a special mention of Apna Dal and Bharatiya Samaj Party, which are fighting 20 of the 403 seats in UP in alliance with the BJP.
Apna Dal enjoys a following among Kurmis, the most dominant OBC group after the Yadavs, while Bharatiya Samaj Party is a breakaway group of Bahujan Samaj Party floated by Mayawati’s erstwhile loyalist Om Prakash Rajbhar.
Stressing that the country’s economy heavily depended on the betterment of farmers and improvement in their purchasing power, Modi said his government was also bringing in measures to ensure that incomes of those involved in agriculture doubled by 2022.