With opposition parties initiating moves to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition government at the Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday recalled the formation of the United Front government in 1996 and said it had "destabilised" the country.
"We have to be cautious of the 'Mahamilavati Mahagathbandhan' (adulterated alliance). These people have done nothing but destabilised the Indian polity. 20 years ago, there was a United Front government at the centre which destabilised India in an unprecedented way.
"Then India saw an inefficient and corrupt government between 2004 and 2014 of the UPA which ran scams cutting across categories," he said at an election meeting in this constituency in which SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is the candidate of the SP-BSP alliance.
After the completion of the fourth phase of polling, opposition leaders including TRS chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and TDP chief and his Andhra pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu have been meeting non-BJP leaders to discuss post-poll possibilities in case BJP fails to get a majority.
Rao met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday while Naidu met Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Wednesday.
Modi said when there is a corrupt government in place, it would not be able to fight or face the challenges before it.
More From This Section
"The people who have indulged in vote-bank and casteist politics had put India under duress. These people had given an opportunity to Pakistan to get away with a lot of misdeeds with regards to our country. After 2014, the terrorist attacks stopped and how were the terrorists limited to some parts of Jammu and Kashmir," Modi in a veiled attack on SP and BSP.
He said Indian forces entered the territories of Pakistan and struck at the roots of terror. "This is a new India, we believe in going behind enemy lines to strike at terror. At one point, the world used to be reluctant to stand with us; today the whole world is standing with us against terrorists like Masood Azhar," he asserted.
Talking about the development work done by the BJP government vis-a-vis earlier governments, PM Modi said, when corrupt and casteist governments were there, then their thinking was very limited.
"You have experienced a lot of problems when earlier in UP, every facility from electricity to gas connections were awarded based on caste formulations. Under the umbrella of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas' thought, people have got facilities without any discrimination. We disbursed gas cylinders to 7 crore people under Ujjwala yojana. Under PMAY, around 1.5 crore people have got homes. We assure our population that by 2022, we would cover all poor families under the PMAY."
"The SP-BSP regimes never cared about people's health. Whereas, under Ayushman Bharat Yojana, we have ensured free treatment for everyone upto Rs 5 Lakh. Just like that, to address farmers' problems we have planned to directly transfer benefits to farmers under PM Kisan Yojana," he said.
The Prime Minister expressed confidence in the people of Azamgarh to come out and vote in huge numbers to form a BJP-led government at the centre.
Five phases of elections are now over in Uttar Pradesh with two phases remaining on May 12 and 19. The counting of votes will be done on May 23.