BodeliPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at the Congress over its ‘remove poverty’ campaign of the past, claiming that poverty has actually increased under the grand old party’s rule as it only raised slogans and asked people to do no concrete work for it. Didn’t get it done. them. Misled instead of doing. He was addressing a rally in Bodeli town of Chhota Udepur district in Gujarat, which is going to polls in the second phase of assembly elections on December 5.
“For decades, the Congress has been saying only one thing – garibi hatao (remove poverty). People had given you the power to do this, but you were asking people to remove poverty. All they did was raise slogans. Making promises and misleading people. This was the reason poverty actually increased during its rule,” Modi alleged.
He said that poor citizens could not play an active role in the economy due to the policies of the previous Congress-led government.
The Prime Minister claimed that the Congress during its government did not give priority to poor people, tribals and people from Other Backward Class (OBC) communities in the education, health and industrial sectors.
Referring to the election of Draupadi Murmu as the President earlier this year, Modi alleged that the opposition party was not in favor of a tribal woman holding the country’s top constitutional post and hence fielded its own candidate.
“He (Murmu) is the pride of every tribal family and every citizen. But the Congress opposed his candidature. They did not want a tribal woman as the President of India. That’s why they have fielded a candidate against him. Otherwise, she would have been. unanimously elected,” he said.
In the first phase of Gujarat assembly elections, out of total 182 seats in the state, 89 seats are being voted on Thursday. Polling for the remaining 93 seats, including Kalol, will be held in the second phase on December 5.