'Yeh dil mange' 300 lotuses, says Modi, triggers row

Palampur/Mandi, April 29 (IANS) BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Tuesday made a passionate appeal to voters to ensure his party's victory on 300 Lok Sabha seats, but his use of Kargil hero Vikram Batra's off-quoted phrase "Ye dil maange more" sparked a controversy with Batra's parents raising objections.

Modi used the more than once during his three rallies in Himachal Pradesh to stir up the sentiments of the people of the hill state, where a large chunk of population comprises serving and retired servicemen.

Batra's septuagenarian father G.L. Batra, whose wife Kamal Kant is in the fray for the first time as an Aam Aadmi Party candidate from the Hamirpur seat, took strong offence to use of "Yeh dil maange more" slogan for soliciting votes.

"The BJP is just trying to take credit in politics at this point in time by politically using the slogan of a martyr," Batra told IANS over the phone from Palampur.

Challenging Modi, he said: "If he is so indebted to the martyrs he must withdraw his party's candidate against my wife."

An emotional Kamal Kant clarified that they never approached the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for contesting the election.

"The AAP has honoured us by fielding me. We have never referred Vikram's name or slogan in the election campaign, then who is the BJP to do it? It has never thought about the martyr earlier," she added.

The mother of Kargil hero, who was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra - India's highest war-time gallantry award, has been fielded by Arvind Kejriwal's AAP against sitting MP Anurag Thakur of the BJP.

But state BJP chief Satpal Satti clarified that Modi used this slogan in the context of winning more seats to have in place a stable government in the centre.

"We have a lot of respect for the soldiers and the martyrs. Even Modiji in his speeches highlighted the plight of families of the martyrs," he added.

Modi, at his first election rally in Palampur town of Kangra district, the hometown of Capt Batra, said: "When we take the name of Maj. Somnath Sharma (the first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, awarded posthumously for his bravery in the November 1947 Kashmir operations) and Vikram Batra, we feel proud. Our mind says: 'Yeh Dil Mange More."

In his Mandi rally, Modi said: "Today, I ask you to make the lotus win with 300 seats because 'Ye dil mange more' just like Vikram Batra, who gave his life for the country in the Kargil war, using the same line.

Donning a Himachali cap, Modi appealed to the voters to "give us 300 lotuses and we will give India a strong government".

Appealing to voters in the age of 18 to 28, he promised: "We will fulfil your dreams ... broken in the last decade."

"You have given 60 years to the rulers in the country, you give just 60 months to this worker. Yeh dil mange 60 months."

"The PM (prime minister) says money does not grow on trees, but in the orchard of one man not apples but money grew. We need to free nation from corruption," he said in an attack on state Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh without naming him.

Praising the contribution of Himachalis, he said: "Today, if there is any terrorist activity in the country, be it a Maoist attack or a bomb blast, I can proudly claim that there must be at least one army man from Himachal, who would be there, fighting for the country."

In his last rally in Solan town, Modi assured the fruit growers, mainly apple, that they would get remunerative prices if the BJP government comes to power in the centre. "The government will take steps to check flooding of imported apples."

A total of 38 candidates are in the fray for the four Lok Sabha seats from the state that will go to polls May 7.