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U'khand polls: Some parties dividing people for vote bank politics, says PM Modi

By, Dehradun
Dec 05, 2021 05:03 AM IST

“There are some political parties in the country which have always created a divide in the society to appease a section,“ PM Modi said ahead of February 2022 assembly polls in Uttarakhand.

Some political parties have “created a divide in society to appease a particular section” for vote-bank politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a rally at Dehradun’s Parade Grounds on Saturday.

Some political parties have ‘created a divide in society to appease a particular section’ for vote-bank politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. (ANI)
Some political parties have ‘created a divide in society to appease a particular section’ for vote-bank politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. (ANI)

“There are some political parties in the country which have always created a divide in the society to appease a section. That section may be a particular caste or a religion,” Modi said ahead of February 2022 assembly polls in Uttarakhand. “Those parties have always seen that section a their vote bank.”

“These parties have also worked to make the public weak so as to make it think that it is only the government which is everything for them. Such an approach of those parties always wanted to make people dependent on their government. They did this as part of a conspiracy without anyone knowing about it,” the Prime Minister said in an election speech. “But the path out government has chosen is totally different but difficult path, as we work on the principle of sabka saath, sabka vikas (with everybody, for everybody’s development). All our welfare schemes aim to benefit all sections of society equally.”

The election rally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was attended by important state leaders including chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand party president Madan Kaushik, junior defence minister Ajay Bhatt and Uttarakhand poll in-charge Prahlad Joshi, among others.

The BJP government wants to make the country strong, Modi said. “And to make the country strong, we are making the people strong,” he said. “We want the people to not be dependent on anyone but be self-reliant.”

The Prime Minister accused the previous central government led by the Congress party of indulging in corruption in the name of infrastructure development.

“At the start of the century, the central government led by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had started significant works to improve road connectivity in the country. But after him, there was a government for 10 years, which did only scams and scandals on pretext of infrastructure development,” Modi said. “To compensate that crucial lost period, our government is now carrying infrastructure development projects at double speed.”

The central government in the past five years have approved developmental projects worth more than 1 trillion for the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, he said.

“The Uttarakhand government has implemented them in a speedy manner. These projects are from various sectors including road infrastructure, pilgrimage, irrigation, water and others. These will not only help in development of the state but also create many jobs,” the Prime Minister said at the hustings. “The previous government at the Centre only built 288km of national highway in seven years in Uttarakhand, while our central government has built over 2,000km of national highways in seven years.”

Pointing to the ongoing restoration and reconstruction work in the Kedarnath shrine after the 2013 cloudburst tragedy, Modi said the number of pilgrims has increased “significantly.”

“In 2012, before the tragedy struck Kedarnath shrine, a total of 5.70 lakh pilgrims had visited the shrine. While in 2019, amid the ongoing restoration works, more than 10 lakh pilgrims visited he shrine,” he said. “The restoration work and development of facilities have not only increased the number of pilgrims, but has also created a number of jobs in the state.”

“The party which is breaking away in the rest of the country cannot work for the prosperity of Uttarakhand,” the Prime Minister said, referring to the Congress, but not naming it. “That’s why I request you all to bless us once again so that BJP can continue to work for the immense development of state under young chief minister Dhami.”

Earlier, Modi drew cheers from the thousands strong crowd when he started his speech with some phrases in the local Garhwali language. He also virtually inaugurated and laid foundation stones of various development projects worth about 18,000 crore at the election rally.

The BJP’s rally was a “failed event,” the opposition Congress said.

“It was clearly a failed event with the fact that only about 25,000-30,000 people had attended it against the tall claim of gathering over one lakh people,” said the party’s state president Ganesh Godiyal. “People now very well understand BJP and Modi’s tactics of fooling the people with false promises. This is not going to happen again. The people of Uttarakhand will teach them a lesson by ousting them from power in the 2022 assembly elections.”

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