Mumbai: In his first joint public rally with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at Ausa in Latur district on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi showered praises on the Sena, while he lashed out at the Congress over several issues, right from its manifesto to questioning the authenticity of the surgical strike on terror camps in Pakistan and the Balakot air strike.
Modi appealed to first-time voters to ‘vote for the nation’. In a long speech, which went on well over 40 minutes, Modi made a conscious effort to strike a connect with the millenials. “You will always remember whom you voted for and in which election. Don’t make any mistake.
All you first-time voters, born in the 21st century, vote for the nation,” he said, without making any direct references to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena or its allies. He pointed out that whenever one draws his or her first salary or earns profits, one gives it to one’s mother, offers it in prayer or to one sister or for some other good cause.
He asked the first-time voters to dedicate their vote to those who carried out the air strike in Balakot. “Can your first vote be dedicated to those who carried out the air strike,” Modi asked, appealing first-time voters at a poll rally here in Latur district of Maharashtra.
The Election Commission had issued an advisory on March 19, asking parties and their candidates against using pictures of defence force personnel in their campaign material. Stepping up his attack on the Congress, Modi said had its leaders acted wisely, Pakistan would not have been created. Pakistan would not have been born in 1947 had Congress leaders acted wisely in the pre-Independence era, Modi said.
The Congress party’s manifesto speaks the same language as that of Pakistan, he added. Attacking the Congress, the PM alleged that corruption was the only activity which the party does “with honesty” after coming to power. “You must have seen how boxes full of currency notes are being recovered from the houses of Congress courtiers.
Buying votes shows their political culture. They are saying for the last six months that the watchman is a thief but from where have the notes come out and who is the real thief,” Modi asked. Modi’s remarks came after the recent income tax raids at several locations, including in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, against close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions.
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