Chilakaluripet: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for the election of a double-engine NDA government in both Andhra Pradesh and at the Centre, which would “ensure the development of AP that was halted for the past five years”.
The Telugu Desam, Jana Sena and the BJP jointly held Praja Galam, a public meeting of the three-party alliance at Boppudi in Palnadu district on Sunday, the first after the announcement of dates for the general elections.
The Prime Minister started his speech in Telugu. He made no mention of the name of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He urged the people of AP to recognise that the YSRC and the Congress “are not different, but two sides of the same coin”.
Notably, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan who used to sit beside Modi during meetings was seen seated next to Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, who occupied the seat adjacent to Modi.
For the first time after their April 30, 2014, public meeting at Tirupati, Modi, Naidu and Pawan Kalyan addressed the Praja Galam public meeting of the NDA from the same dais at Boppudi in Chilakaluripet of Palnadu district on Sunday.
Without criticising Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Prime Minister targeted the YSRC ministers, saying, “In this election, the people of AP have decided to bring back the NDA government in Delhi. They are fed up with the present government here. The ministers of AP are competing with each other in committing corruption.”
“In the last five years, the state’s progress has been hit. Hence, the people have decided to oust the present government in AP."
“There was no development here in the last five years. By remaining silent, the Congress was trying to steer away the people’s anger against the present government, to benefit the ruling party. They are together. Their effort is to drive the anger towards the BJP to lessen pressure on the ruling YSRC party,” the Prime Minister observed.
Modi said the coming five years would be crucial for both the nation and AP. Modi reminded the voters that “the festival of democracy started today”.
The Prime Minister, who faced frequent disturbance in the public address system, said this was nothing but “the eagerness and enthusiasm of the people of AP to trounce the ruling party (YSRC)”.
He expressed confidence that the BJP-TD-JS alliance would do very well in AP and urged the people to vote for the NDA so that the “double engine government at the Centre and the state” would jointly usher in the development of the state.
“Our alliance is for national integration and regional progress. The NDA is getting stronger. Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan have been working for a long time for your development. A developed AP will add to national development and the NDA double engine would help AP,” the Prime Minister said.
Criticising the INDIA bloc, Modi said that while the NDA united the political parties, the Congress used and threw them at its convenience. “Look at the Congress and the Left in Kerala, the TMC in West Bengal, the AAP in Punjab. They keep fighting between them. Imagine how they will function after the elections.”
Recalling how the Congress treated Telugu leaders, P.V. Narasimha Rao and N.T. Rama Rao, he said that the NDA always respected the Telugu leaders. “We honoured PV with Bharat Ratna and released a stamp on NTR who acted so well as Lord Rama and Lord Krishna on celluloid,” Modi added.
