)
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Thursday tore into the father-son duo of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, alleging they had destroyed Uttar Pradesh.
In his first direct attack against the Samajwadi Party chief, who earlier said at a rally in Varanasi that Modi's hands were soaked in blood, the BJP leader said the "baap-beta" (father-son) duo followed him wherever he went.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was addressing a Vijay Shankhnad (conch-call victory call) rally organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party, at Gorakhpur city in Uttar Pradesh.
Referring to the statement of Mulayam Singh Yadav that Modi could not make a Gujarat of Uttar Pradesh, he said the Yadavs have no "haisiyat" (standing) to change Uttar Pradesh into Gujarat.
"Uttar Pradesh ko Gujarat banane ke liye 56-inch ka chauda seena chahiye, vote bank kii rajniti karne waale log nahin," (For turning Uttar Pradesh into Gujarat, a vibrant state, one needs a 56-inch chest and not politicians digging their heels into vote bank politics), Modi said, as the massive crowd cheered at Manbela in Gorakhpur.
To become Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh needed 10 percent growth in agriculture, not three or four percent as in the last 10 years, Modi said.
Gujarat, he pointed out, meant 24x7 power supply, sugarcane dues paid on time, crushing of cane on schedule, and happy farmers, something not possible for the Samajwadi Party government, Modi said.
"Uttar Pradesh has the potential to become the leading state in the country, but sadly the people who have ruled here in the past one decade have chosen to ruin the state with their petty, narrow political thinking and vote bank politics," the Gujarat chief minister said.
"The state affords no honour to girls and women, no employment, no security or safety for its citizens. You have destroyed the mandate given by the people to your party in the 2012 state assembly polls," the BJP leader said, referring to Mulayam as "Netaji" as he is called by his partymen.
He also told the gathering that while other parties in the state had decided to destroy Uttar Pradesh, the BJP was committed to the development and prosperity of the state.
Seeking a five-year term for the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Modi said that while they had given 60 years to the Congress, he was seeking 60 months to change the face of India and bring prosperity in every home, a smile on every face.
Inviting the farmers of Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat, he said one should see for himself or herself what vision he has for the state.
Predicting that the voters of the country had made up their mind to vote out the Congress and its allies, Narendra Modi also charged the United Progressive Alliance government and its allies, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, of presiding over gloom in the country.
Thanking the people of Uttar Pradesh for the love they expressed in attending his rallies in large numbers, Modi said that given a chance, he would return that love, offering them the dividend of development.
