Modi assures people of prosperity, development

Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh), March 26 (IANS) BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Wednesday urged people to remove the "corrupt Congress" and vote for his party, assuring them of prosperity, development and a bright future.

"You give us 60 months and we will give you an India of your dreams," he told a large gathering in Bulandshahr of western Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing his first 'Bharat Vijay' rally in Uttar Pradesh, the Gujarat chief minister targeted the Congress and accused it of price rise, inflation, bad governance and rising unemployment in the country.

Alleging the opposition parties were rattled at the growing acceptance of the BJP across the country, Modi said such parties were now chanting the "secularism raga" to stop him.

"Whenever I say let us talk about development and other serious issues, these parties say first discuss secularism," he said while taking a jibe at the Congress plank of secularism.

Talking about the Sachar Committee report and various other minority-oriented schemes funded by the union government, the BJP leader said all that the Congress has done for minorities was to fool them with false promises.

In a move aimed at touching a raw nerve of sugarcane growers in the region, Modi said many sugar mills were running in his state too but no arrears were pending and farmers were happy and prosperous there.

"This area was known as the sugar bowl once and now the area has become bitter for farmers here," he said in a reference to pending arrears running into several hundred crore rupees.

After a long gap, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate once again invoked his by-now-famous jibe against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as he called him "shehzaade" (prince).

As the crowd roared in approval, Modi said such Congress leaders had no road map for the nation and its people and were only selling pipe dreams.