Biju Babu would be sad to see his dream shattered by son’s Govt, says Modi at huge rally
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed the Naveen Patnaik Government over lack of development in Odisha and mocked at the proposed Third Front, of which Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is a partner, saying that such an alliance’s only job was to “save” the Congress”.
launching his 2014 election campaign in Odisha in Bhubaneswar, Modi said the members of the Third Front had “destroyed” every State they had ruled, whether it was the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, left parties in West Bengal or the BJD in Odisha.
Terming the efforts for cobbling a Third Front as an attempt to help the Congress, he said nine of the 11 parties of this front had been supporting the Congress and they had put on the “mask” of a Third Front on the eve of general elections. “Third Front has only one work — save Congress. Time has come to teach them a lesson,” he said.
Asserting that the Congress would be history after 100 days, Modi said the idea of Third Front was born at a time when the existence of the Congress was in danger.
Stating that the 2014 elections will be the “purification of Indian politics”, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate said, “The purification of politics will not be possible if people do not remain aware of the so-called Third Front promoters.”
In a no-holds-barred attack on the BJD, Modi invoked the State’s former Chief Minister and Naveen Patnaik’s father Biju Patnaik and said the late leader would have been sad to see the poor condition of his State.
In a dig to Naveen Patnaik, he said most of the Odia migrants working in Gujarat, especially in Surat, were from his (Naveen) home district Ganjam, which continues to be poverty-stricken.
“The most appropriate tribute to Bijubabu will be to make Odisha a developed State…. I have not come here with promises but intentions,” he told a large gathering, urging them to vote for the BJP in the lok Sabha and Assembly elections to help him develop the State once he comes to power at the Centre.
Modi said he and Patnaik have been Chief Ministers for the last 14 years, but while Gujarat prospered, Odisha lagged behind and remained a poorest State despite being endowed with rich natural resources.
He said a BJP Government would bring about development in the State so much so that migrants would come back to the State from other States like Gujarat. Modi said that if the people of eastern States want development, generation of jobs, honour to women, agriculture growth, they must teach a lesson to the Congress and Third Front constituents like the BJD in Odisha.
“I vow before you that to help the poor prosper is the top priority of the BJP,” Modi said, to the thundering applause from the audience.
His call for “a note for cooperation, vote for lotus”, received an overwhelming response from people at his Vijay Sankalap Samavesh here. There were long queues at the meeting place to donate money in the specially-designed boxes that had the pictures of Modi, party president Rajanath Singh and party symbol ‘lotus’ painted on them.
“I need 21 Kamals (lotuses) from Odisha to usher in the change that the State badly needs. Unless there is a direct ‘pipeline’ from here to New Delhi and me, I cannot do much for your State even if I become the Prime Minister,” Modi said.
Earlier, BJP president Rajnath Singh, in his speech, had also taken on Naveen Patnaik on the mining scam issue and stated that both the BJD Government in the State and the Congress-led Government at the Centre are hands in glove in covering up their roles in this mega scam.