)
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Saturday stressed on the development of infrastructure in Rajasthan for gas and petroleum, saying their immense potential can give the country new strength and make the state the "pride of India".
"I know how hard you work and how important water is for you. We want to link rivers. We want to fulfil Atal Bihari Vajpayee's dream of interlinking rivers. Scope for gas and petroleum is immense in this region. It can give new strength to the nation," he said at a rally in Pachpadra in Barmer district.
"Like water, gas and petrol can make this land the pride of India. And this is exactly what our priority will be," the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.
Modi said people have decided to go for good governance and development and not for vote bank politics, which has done no good for the nation.
"It pains me how vote bank politics has weakened our nation and caused divisions. We need to save India from it," Modi said.
He said that unlike the Congress, he will not fool them but return the love and faith people have bestowed on him in the form of development.
He said the Gujarat government has started a petroleum university and urged Rajasthan's youth to study there.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Modi said the party has "misused" every government agency to trouble him.
"In the last 10 years, every agency has been misused to trouble me. They worked overtime on this," he said, in an indirect reference to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Without naming former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, he said a complaint has made about a Lok Sabha candidate from Amritsar on hiding information about his bank accounts.
"I want to tell officials to probe it. If he is innocent, the Congress should speak for him, saying he is clean," Modi said. "People have a right to know the truth."
He said if the BJP comes to power, his government will work towards bringing back to India the black money stashed in banks overseas.
Modi also assured that the government will take care of Hindu migrants from Pakistan.
