Modi sets tone for LS polls, slams Opposition

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday set the tone for the BJP campaign for the Lok Sabha elections by launching a sharp attack on the Opposition for spreading lies against his government and gave a slogan for the party – 'Ajeya Bharat, Atal BJP'.

In his concluding remarks at the two-day BJP National Executive meeting here, Modi trained his guns on the Opposition alliance contending that it was the “biggest vindication” of the NDA government's success.

“People who do not see eye-to-eye, share no common ideology and cannot tolerate each other are coming together. This is the biggest vindication of our success. This is because people have accepted our programmes, party and leadership,” Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters quoting the prime minister.

“There is no sign of leadership, the policies are unclear and intention is corrupt,” Modi said.

Earlier, BJP president Amit Shah told the meeting that a victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls would ensure the BJP remained in power for the next 50 years.

Modi urged party workers to ensure victory for the BJP in every booth in the upcoming elections. “The booth is our foundation on which the elaborate fortress of the BJP is standing tall,” he said.

Interestingly, the Ram Janmabhoomi issue which the BJP has been espousing for decades found no mention in the two-day meeting. “This was not on agenda today,” HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Later, the law minister merely said the issue was pending in the Supreme Court.

Launching a sharp attack on the Congress, Modi said nobody in Opposition was ready to accept the leadership of the Congress as they believed it was not capable of it. “This is not true only of the Opposition parties but also some within the Congress,” he said.

Modi said the BJP does not see a challenger to it anywhere and slammed the Opposition for not doing its job properly.

“Those who were a failure in government are a failure in Opposition. They have not raised real issues,” Prasad said quoting Modi.

He said the theme of the BJP campaign would be the performance of the government over 48 months and the performance of the Congress for 48 years. “Whom did you work for in 48 years, for one family,” Modi asked.

The persona of former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee dominated the meeting with Modi paying rich tributes to the departed leader by coining a slogan 'Ajeya Bharat, Atal BJP' (Victorious India, Firm BJP).