Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a blistering attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP) government on Monday and accused Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of hounding and harassing honest officials.
"A senior bureaucrat openly said that to become District Magistrate in Uttar Pradesh, one has to cough up Rs 70 lakh and he was suspended within hours," Modi said while asking the people if this was the work the Chief Minister was seeking votes on.
"Another official, when objected to some wrong-doings, he was threatened over phone. Is this his 'kaam boltaa hai' that the Chief Minister is claiming. Not their 'kaam' (work) but their 'kaarname' (misdeeds) speak," he chuckled.
Addressing a huge election rally here, Modi said the Samajwadi Party government had plundered the state's coffers and also protected corrupt ministers and leaders of its predecessor BSP government.
"Akhilesh Yadav will have to answer why he did not act against the graft-tainted leaders of the BSP even after five years."
Accusing the SP government of completely failing to protect and safeguard the honour of women, he said it is a "shame that such a government was asking for my report card".
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"This election is your election Akhileshji, you say what you have done in five years," he said as people cheered him.
Modi also listed various welfare programmes and schemes of his government at the Centre and reiterated his government's commitment to the farmers, poor and the middle-class people.
"There was a time when there were long lines for LPG cylinders, farmers were canecharged while getting urea... The situation has completely changed," the Prime Minister said while pointing out how 1.8 lakh gas connections were distributed in just one year.
Speaking on how interviews had been abolished for Group C and D government jobs, Modi said parents had to mortgage their land, pawn their jewellry to ensure that their son and daughter got through such interviews. The Prime Minister said even though he requested the state government in Uttar Pradesh to replicate the model here, they refused to accept the idea.
"When we come to power in the state, all interviews to these categories will be done away with," he said as the sizable number of youths in the gathering cheered him with "Modi-Modi".
Expressing confidence that on March 11, the "Lotus" (Bharatiya Janata Party poll symbol) will bloom across the state and a majority BJP government will come to power, the Prime Minister also ridiculed the SP-Congress alliance.
"The people who looted the country have joined hands with the people, who have looted the state," he said, urging people to trash the unholy alliance.
Modi also said that all acts of the Akhilesh Yadav government in the state would be scrutinised, probed and action taken as per law.
"They have all connived against Modi because they are afraid that every penny they have looted from the people will be accounted for by me," he said, justifying his demonetisation drive.
"At 8.00 p.m. on November 8 last year, when I made the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 invalid, these people lost everything, all that they had stashed up after robbing the people became scrap," he said attacking the Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and the SP.
Asking people to question Rahul Gandhi on how Rs 140 crore was found stashed in the house of a Congress minister in Karnataka, Modi said he will not be cowed down by attacks on him and would not rest until corruption ends and the guilty are brought to book.
--IANS
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