In an attempt to strike an emotional chord with voters of Seemandhra, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday compared former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao with the last Moghul Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, in the matter of treatment meted out to them after their death.
Addressing NDA’s election rally in Guntur in coastal Andhra, Modi charged Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi with humiliating Narasimha Rao by denying him a memorial ground in the national capital.
“Bahadur Shah Zafar had waged war of Independence against the British empire. When Zafar died, British Raj in Delhi refused to give him two yards of land because he had fought against British,” Modi said, referring to the last Moghul Emperor’s burial in Rangoon (Burma).
“Narasimha Rao had worked for economic freedom of the country but the Government of mother-son refused to give him two yards of land. He had devoted his entire life for the Congress and also served as Prime Minister but his body was not taken to the Congress office even for a few minutes,” he said, alleging that insulting Telugu people was part of the nature of the Congress and its leaders.
He also alleged that the YSR Government had looted the State and filled the coffers of the mother-son duo. Modi visited Sri Venkateshwara temple at Tirumala Hills and offered pooja. He was accompanied by senior party leaders M Venkaiah Naidu, Prakash Javadekar, film star Pavan Kalyan and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Modi, who spent the night in Tirupati, reached Tirumala temple as soon as the time for “VIP Darshan” started. He was formally welcomed by the officials of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) and taken to the main temple for Darshan. AV Ramana Deekshitulu, head priest of the temple, conducted the rituals. MG Gopal, the executive officer of the TTD, offered Modi and other visitors the Prasad of the temple.