Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday praised Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for working for the welfare of women and children.
Addressing a rally in the state's Shahdol District, Modi said there is a wave and a mood across the country to punish the Congress.
"During the past 50 years, the Congress Party has not paid heed to women and children. Shivraj Singh Chouhan has done a lot of humanitarian work, especially for them. When Congress was ruling the state ten years back, institutional delivery was 26 percent in this state. Now, due to the policies formulated by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, 84 percent of the mothers undergo institutional delivery," he added.
Modi is using the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Mizoram to build a presence among voters unfamiliar with his promises of efficient governance and probity.
Praising former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Modi said: "In the last five years, they (Congress) were least concerned about the tribals. If they would have been concerned about the tribals, then after Indian independence, they would have first made a separate ministry for the tribals. There would have been a separate minister, budget for tribals. But after ruling for 50 years they were least bothered about the tribals. It was the first government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee (former Prime Minister) when a separate ministry for tribals was created."
The Indian media is presenting the 2014 election as a face-off between Rahul Gandhi and Modi.
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Modi first came to power in Gujarat in 2001, and subsequently won elections in 2002 and again in 2007.
Modi's appeal outside Gujarat is largely untested. Gujarat has been a BJP stronghold since the 1990s and benefited from a weak state-level opposition. But his campaigns on behalf of the party outside his home state have had mixed results.