LUCKNOW: While spearheading BJP’s poll campaign in Purvanchal for the last phase of the big battle of 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi played up the caste card at his two back-to-back rallies in Ghazipur and Robertsganj on Saturday.
Notably, Robertsganj is the last (80th) and the only Lok Sabha constituency reserved for scheduled tribes (ST) of Uttar Pradesh. Both Ghazipur and Robertsganj will go to polls in the last phase along with Modi's constituency Varanasi and 10 other seats on May 19.
Raising the caste issue in the region where SP-BSP alliance is too banking on the caste arithmetic, Modi targeted them by claiming that those who were seeking his caste certificate should know that he belonged the "caste of poor". “The people of the ‘Mahamilawat’ recently started picking on my caste, I want to tell them that I belong to the caste of the poor of the country,” he said at both the rallies.
“I provided housing, water facilities, and gas facilities to the poor because I belong to them,” he added. In the same breathe, he took a jibe at SP and BSP leadership accusing them of amassing wealth and promoting their respective families by attaining political stature in the name of their backward and Dalit caste.
"I have been Gujarat Chief Minister for the longest time and have been Prime Minister for the last five years but there is not a single property listed in my name. I have never made any money, neither for myself nor have I given any money to anyone in my family," he asserted adding that there were leaders of ‘Mahamilawati’ gathbandhan who had filled their bank accounts with wealth worth millions.
While making a fervent vote appeal for a strong government at Centre, Modi jumped to Sam Pitroda’s ‘hua to hua’ (it happended so it be) jibe to take on Congress party accusing it of arrogance. “They are steeped deep in hubris. They treat themselves as king and countrymen as their subject. This is Congress’s instinct but also of SP and BSP. There is a whole bunch of arrogant politicians who lack vision for the country’s development and compassion for countrymen,” maintained the PM.
Targeting Congress government over the Alwar gangrape case in his Ghazipur rally, Modi charged CM Ashok Gehlot of shielding the culprits in order to cover up the incident to arrest the prospective
damage to the party in poll season. “They did not register the case for a week as they wanted to hide the incident from media glare during the polls. Instead of meeting out justice to the victim, they were bothered more about their votes. This is their NYAY,” he said. He even questioned the alleged silence of "award wapsi gang" over the issue.
Paying tribute to the residents of Ghazipur’s Gahamar village where every family has a person serving in Indian Army, Modi referred to Kumaraswamy’s statement that only those joined army who were poor and didn’t have to eat. “Isn't it an insult to our Army? Will you not avenge such insult heaped on the Armymen and the brave mothers Gahmar who take pride in sending their sons to serve the nation?” asked the PM getting an affirmative response from the cheering corwd.