UP polls to impact country: Modi

Underlining the importance of the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh for the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the results of the elections would have an impact on the country and sought a clear mandate from the people, while asking them to rise above caste and support the saffron party.

The prime minister said, “BJP workers should take the polls as a huge responsibility...it will impact the country.”

Contrary to expectations, Modi, at his first public meeting in the New Year, refrained from making any announcement on the note ban and instead confined his speech to development and polls in the state, which are likely to be held next month.

“We do not want a fractured mandate...we want absolute majority so that the development of Uttar Pradesh can be ensured,” the prime minister said, adding that in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls Uttar Pradesh had helped the saffron party attain absolute majority.

In his 45-minute speech, the prime minister attacked the successive Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BSP regimes in Uttar Pradesh for not doing anything for the development of the state as he sought a mandate for his party to ensure that the state did not lag behind.

“While one party has been unsuccessfully trying to establish the son (Rahul), the other (the BSP) has been looking for banks to deposit its money...there is another party (the SP), which is worried about saving its family...the BJP on the other hand, is thinking about saving Uttar Pradesh,” Modi said.

The prime minister also said that his crusade  against black money and corruption would continue.

“We say remove black money and corruption but the Opposition says remove Modi...it is strange that diametrically opposite parties like the SP and the BSP have united on the issue of black money and corruption,” he added.

The prime minister accused the SP regime of not making proper use of the funds given to it by the Centre and also attacked it for failing on the law and order front.