Prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh were ''very different'' from any other elections as they would decide if the state continued to "march on the path of development under the 'double engine' government."
"Ye chunav sabse alag hai... ye chunav history-sheeters ko bahar rakhne aur ek nayi history likhne ka chunav hai (It is a different election... it is to keep the history-sheeters out and script a new history)," Modi said at an election rally, held virtually.
In an apparent bid to keep the electorally influential 'Jat' community in good spirits, Modi invoked former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and popular 'Jat' king Mahendra Pratap Singh and appealed to the people to choose a party that could ensure allround development of the state.
"We must not allow the rioters and mafia elements to indirectly grab power in the state and destroy the state... good law and order is a pre-requisite for growth of business,'' the prime minister said.
In a veiled dig at Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav over the latter's alleged opposition to vaccination, Modi said that the country would have suffered immensely in the third wave if they had fallen prey to the "rumours" spread against the vaccines by some political personalities.
"We could successfully tackle the third wave only as a large population of the country was vaccinated," he said.
He also sought to woo the farmers in the region by saying that the BJP government in the state had taken several steps for their benefit. "Many sugar mills were sold during the regimes of the BSP and SP... not a single sugar mill was sold during the BJP regime," he said.
Modi also praised the Union Budget and said that it had several provisions for the benefits of the poor, women and farmers.
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