Coming down heavily on the Opposition for their “parivarvadi” (dynastic) politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the development work initiated by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led double-engine government has rattled such elements.
Speaking at a meeting in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh, Mr. Modi said the Opposition has been attacking him out of frustration. “As Uttar Pradesh reaches new horizons of development, the venom of appeasement is weakening, forcing the rattled parivarvadi leaders to abuse me every day. They say Modi doesn’t have a family of his own. They forget that 140-crore citizens are Modi ka Parivar [Modi’s family],” said the Prime Minister after inaugurating and laying foundation stone for multiple developmental projects worth over ₹34,700 crore across the State.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the Azamgarh, Shravasti, Chitrakoot, and Aligarh airports and a new terminal of the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, as well as over 5,342 km of roads built across 59 districts under the PM Gram Sadak Yojna at a cost of ₹3,700 crore. He laid foundation stone of 12 railway projects worth ₹8,200 crore, among others.
Mr. Modi lashed out at the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) for dismissing the development projects launched by him in recent days as a “poll gimmick”, stressing that these inaugurations should not be seen from the point of view of elections. “In 2024, no one should see these through the lens of the upcoming election. We are embarking on a journey of development. I am aiming to make the country a developed nation by 2047 and making the country run in that direction,” added the PM.
While earlier regimes forced farmers to struggle for every penny, the BJP government has “cleared dues worth thousands of crores for sugarcane farmers of Uttar Pradesh”, he stressed.
Purvanchal focus
On the development push in Purvanchal (Eastern U.P.), the PM said the region once known for crime and extremism and casteist politics, has seen “accelerated development in the last seven years under the leadership of Yogi ji [Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath], along with emphasis on rule of law”.
The PM called on the voters of Azamgarh, considered a bastion of the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP), to not lag behind this time in helping the BJP to cross the 400-seat target in the upcoming election. “This time too, Azamgarh should not fall behind in BJP’s clean sweep of Uttar Pradesh. That’s why I have come here. Abki baar 400 paar [let’s cross 400 seats],” exhorted the PM.
Mr. Modi visit to Azamgarh, a Lok Sabha constituency having a sizeable Muslim and Yadav electorate, is seen as significant amid the BJP’s attempt to make inroads in a challenging region. In the 2019 general election, the BJP lost Azamgarh and three neighbouring parliamentary seats and in the 2022 Assembly election, it lost all 10 seats.
The Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat was a SP bastion for a better part of the last three decades. SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and present president Akhilesh Yadav had represented the Muslim-Yadav dominated constituency in the past. In the 2022 parliamentary byelection necessitated by the resignation of Mr. Yadav, BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ won a closely fought contest by a mere 8,000-odd votes.
