In a bid to corner Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, prime minister Narendra Modi on Sunday raked up an alleged remark made by the former wherein he had said that people often chose to live in 'Kashi' (old name of Varanasi) in their "last days".
Addressing BJP workers in Varanasi, Modi said that it was sad to see people stooping to such low level in politics as to wish for death of their rivals.
"Maine anubhav kiya ki rajneeti mein kuch log kitna neeche gir gaye...sarvajanik roop se meri mrityu ki kamna ki gayi" (It is my experience that some persons can stoop so low in politics that they publicly wished for my death in Kashi), the prime minister said.
Modi was apparently referring to an alleged statement made by Akhilesh in reply to a question last year that people often chose to live in 'Kashi' in their 'last days'.
"I felt very happy at the remarks....it means that the people of Kashi will not abandon me until my death. It will be a matter of privilege for me if I die while serving the people of Kashi," he added.
Modi's comments assumed significance as they came barely days before the fifth and sixth phase of polling in the state and the rivals said that it was an attempt to gain sympathy of the people ahead of the polling for the last two phases.
Earlier addressing election rallies at Basti and Deoria, Modi, sought to portray his party as 'nationalist' while accusing his rivals of not making any attempt to make the country self-dependent during their regime as they had their eyes on 'commission'.
"The battle of UP is between the parivaravadis (dynasts) and rashtrawadis (nationalists) and in this fight the rashtrawadis will emerge victorious as they have the support of every section of the society," Modi said.
He said that those who indulged in the politics of family, forced our armed forces to depend on supply from abroad and never made any attempt to set up units for manufacturing defense items.
"These people made our armed forces completely dependent on foreign countries....they liked taking commission.....now our government is going to set up a defense corridor in UP," the prime minister said.
Modi said that the country had oil wells but the governments in the past did not make any attempt to explore them and therefore the country had to import oil from abroad.
The prime minister also referred to the ongoing fighting between Russia and Ukraine and said that the government was committed to bringing all the stranded students from Ukraine. "The government has always come to the rescue of our nationals in times of crisis," he added.
Modi also heaped praise on UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath saying that his government had been able to eradicate encephalitis from the region. "Earlier, thousands of children and other people died every year owing to the disease but the state government has managed to control it," he said.
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