Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 'Need 400 seats to stop opposition from snatching quotas, robbing people,' says PM Modi

Agra/Bareilly (UP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the opposition parties wanted to win the Lok Sabha elections to bring religion-based reservation while he sought 400 seats to stop them from snatching the quotas of Dalits and Other Backward Classes.

At election rallies in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, he also pitched himself as the “chowkidar” (watchman) and a “wall” to protect people from alleged Congress plans to “rob” people – either through “redistribution” of wealth or imposition of an inheritance tax – if the INDIA bloc came to power.

He suggested that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party intended to give away a chunk from reservation in jobs and education meant for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes to their own “vote bank”.

Modi reminded that then PM Manmohan Singh had in 2006 said the minorities, particularly Muslims, have the “first claim” to the country’s resources.

“The SP, Congress and their INDI alliance can go to any extent for appeasement... there is uproar in the entire country due to the dangerous intentions of the Congress. The dangerous 'panja' (hand symbol) is going to snatch the rights of the people of the country again,' he said.

His attack on the I.N.D.I.A. group took place at a series of election rallies – in Morena in Madhya Pradesh, and Agra, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

At Aonla in Bareilly district, he also claimed that the Congress not only wanted to conduct an economic survey but also survey institutions and offices.

"If two people in a backward or Dalit family work, they will take away the job of one and give it to those whom they say have the first right on the country's resources," Modi said.

"INDI alliance is seeking votes for changing the Constitution to provide religion- based reservation. I am asking for 400 seats to put a lock on their plans to rob the reservation for the SC, ST and OBC people. I need 400 seats so that no one takes away your rights," he said.

The prime minister has been predicting that the BJP-led NDA alliance will reach this mark in these Lok Sabha elections.

Mentioning the Yadav, Kushwaha, Maurya, Gurjar, Rajbhar, Teli and Pal communities, he said, 'I will never let the Samajwadi Party and Congress snatch away your right to reservation. This is Modi's guarantee,' he said in Bareilly.

In Agra, he said, 'The policy of appeasement divided the country but we are ending 'tushtikaran' (appeasement) and working for 'santushtikaran' (satisfying people).' He attacked the opposition tie-up in Uttar Pradesh, referring indirectly to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

"The friendship between the two boys in UP is based on politics of appeasement. Both talk of the OBC in their speeches but they want to snatch away their rights from the back door and strengthen their own vote bank," he said.

He said the Congress government in Karnataka brought all Muslim castes under the OBC category, making them the “owners” of this quota.

"The Congress intends to play the same game in Uttar Pradesh also. In this, it is getting the full support from the Samajwadi Party," he charged.

“For the sake of its vote bank, Samajwadi Party is betraying the biggest trust of Yadavs and the backward classes. Both Samajwadi Party and the Congress, immersed in appeasement, have the same type of thinking,” he charged.

He said the Constitution doesn’t allow reservation on the basis of religion. “But the Congress insults the Constitution by advocating this. The Congress is determined to steal from the OBC quota to provide reservation based on religion,' Modi said.

He said the Congress in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and in its manifesto, has repeatedly advocated reservation on the basis of religion even though the Constitution forbids it.

“Everything the Congress did on this front was rejected by the country’s judiciary, so now the Congress has started playing the game through the back door,' he said.

He referred to Rahul Gandhi’s reported remarks on conducting a “survey” on economic inequalities.

"The Congress shehzade's X-ray machine will now reach the cupboards and lockers of women. It will also reach where they have kept their ‘mangalsutras’. If the SP and Congress government comes to power, they will rob it. Modi charged.

“Their shehzada (prince) himself is saying this,” he claimed.

"They are eyeing the savings of mothers and sisters. But I am standing as your watchman to make women entitled to their property,” Modi said in Agra, invoking the term “chowkidar” he has used for himself in the past.

In Morena, he said, “Modi is standing as a wall between you and the Congress plan to loot you."

He also attacked the opposition parties over “dynastic politics”, saying for them family was everything. 'The SP didn't find any Yadav outside the family to give tickets in Budaun, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Azamgarh and Kannauj,' he mocked.

Modi said this election was to completely free the country of the slave mentality of 1,000 years and to give new heights to India's self-respect.

The prime minister also took on the opposition over the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

“They considered themselves greater than Lord Ram. They rejected the invitation of the consecration ceremony so that their vote bank doesn’t get upset," he said.