JOIN USModi urges voters to oust 'SCAM'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the BJP’s poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, putting at stake his own image to seek the people’s mandate by urging voters to oust ‘SCAM’ for the state’s development.
Modi asked the gathering, “You made me Prime Minister. Have I done anything in the last two-and-a-half years of rule that might shame the country?” He then went on to use the ‘SCAM’ word.
“By SCAM I mean, S for Samajwadi (Party), C for Congress, A for Akhilesh and M for Mayawati,” the prime minister told the cheering crowds at a ground in Shatabdi Nagar, where he addressed people three years ago in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
“This election is against SCAM which the BJP is fighting. Uttar Pradesh will have to decide whether it wants SCAM or Lotus? SCAM or debacle of the state? SCAM or employment? Till the time you don’t vote SCAM out, peace and prosperity won’t return to Uttar Pradesh,” Modi, who is also an MP from Varanasi, said at the ‘Vijay Shankhnad’ rally.
Modi remains the poll mascot of the BJP in four out of five poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
While polling for Punjab and Goa took place on Saturday, the first phase in western Uttar Pradesh, for which he addressed a rally here, will vote on February 11.
The prime minister attempted to demystify Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s persona and his five-year stint, given that the latter is the face of the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance that is posing a challenge to the BJP in a triangular contest with the BSP.
Spares Mulayam
Modi, interestingly, spared Akhilesh’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav, despite the ugly public spat in the first family of the SP. Taking on Akhilesh for doing “politics 24 hours”, the prime minister said, “Such people think first about their family, then about themselves and now how to save their chair. Uttar Pradesh’s fate cannot change with such people around.”
In his hour-long speech, Modi also wondered what were the constraints that forced Akhilesh to give tickets to the mining mafia (perhaps hinting at former minister Gayatri Prajapati) after taking a moral high ground against tainted leaders.
Modi accused the SP regime of personifying politician-mafia nexus. Hitting out at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for forging a never-before alliance, the prime minister said till a few months ago, the Congress was holding rallies across Uttar Pradesh and would accuse the ruling SP of corruption, neglecting farmers and destroying the state. Now, both have “embraced each other”.
Modi also expressed his helplessness at Akhilesh’s government’s failure to utilise the central funds allocated to the state.