In a bid to woo the farming community, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the BJP will waive off loans of all small farmers once voted to power. Invoking former prime minister and farmer leader Chaudhary Charan Singh at a rally in Jat-majority Bijnor, the prime minister promised voters that his party will set up ‘Chaudhary Charan Singh Kisan Kalyan Kosh’ in all districts of the state. Incidentally, Ajit Singh, who heads the RLD and has pitched candidates in western UP against the BJP, is the son of Charan Singh, who died in 1987.
PM Modi also slammed chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and alleged that the incumbent government jailed BJP supporters prior to elections. “BJP ke logon ko, samarthakon ko jail mein bhar dia gaya,” PM Modi alleged. The prime minister promised that the BJP government in UP will order a probe into the “false cases” lodged by the SP dispensation against its rivals.
Taking a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the prime minister remarked that he is a social media darling and that there are many jokes on him. “There is a Congress leader who does such silly things that most of the internet jokes on politicians are on him. Even Congress members distance themselves from that leader. Akhilesh went ahead and joined hands with him. It was then when I doubted his intelligence,” PM Modi said.
Targeting SP-Congress alliance, the prime minister urged people to reject the alliance of two clans. “One clan destroyed India and the other destroyed Uttar Pradesh. They have both come together this time. In order to save UP, the voters must reject them,” said PM Modi.
Uttar Pradesh goes to polls in seven phases between February 11 and March 8. The first phase will cover western UP districts, including riot-scarred Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, where BJP had fared well in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The election will see a three-cornered contest following the tie up of SP and Congress. BJP and the BSP are the other sides in the election.