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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hailed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance's sweeping victory in Maharashtra as popular endorsement of its governance model and rejection of the Congress' "lies and deceit", as he accused the Gandhi family of spreading the "poison of casteism and divisiveness".
Buoyed by the National Democratic Alliance's unprecedented scale of win in the politically prized state, Modi flayed the Congress for "betraying" the Constitution's secular principals and cited the Waqf Act, which his government is seeking to amend, as an example of its "appeasement politics".
The Congress has tried to inflict capital punishment on true secularism, he claimed, asserting that the Waqf law has no place in the Constitution.
Reiterating his call for "ek hain to safe hain" (we are safe if united), he said this is the biggest message from Maharashtra after the Haryana polls and it has become the country's "mahamantra".
It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Congress to come to power on its own, he said, dubbing the opposition party as parasitic.
The Congress and its allies tried to divide people with lies and deceits, he said in an apparent reference to their claim of threat to the Constitution from the BJP, a plank which harmed the ruling party in the Lok Sabha polls in a few states, but were rejected.
The Congress' priority is only family, he said in a swipe at the party's Gandhi family and not people of the country. The royal family is now spreading the poison of casteism, he added.
A family's hunger for power has gone up so much that it has eaten up the party, he said, claiming that fire of disaffection is surging with the Congress as many of its own leaders no longer identify with its existing values.
When it comes to good governance, people trust only the BJP, he said, noting that the party has also put up an impressive show in the bypolls held across the country. It is a historic stamp on the BJP's governance model, he said.
"Development, good governance and true social justice have won. Lies, deceit, divisive forces, negative politics and nepotism have suffered a big defeat," he said of the Maharashtra poll results. People have preferred stability and the state has broken all records in its support of the BJP-led alliance, he added.
In a swipe at the longtime BJP ally-turned-bitter rival Uddhav Thackeray, who heads a Shiv Sena faction, he said the leaders who resorted to betrayal and tried to create instability have been roundly rejected by people.
He said the Congress allied with Uddhav Thackeray but the party and its leaders could not speak in support of the policies of his father Bal Thackeray, a leading Hindtutva voice of his time.
With the Delhi Assembly polls round the corner, Modi highlighted the popular support for the BJP in major cities in many states and emphasised on his party's agenda for making Indian cities among the best in the world.
His government has been working to boost urban infrastructure by launching new metro trains, highways and electric buses, he said, describing cities as engines of development that also strengthens villages.
The urban region's support of the BJP is a message for modern India and a rejection of those putting obstacles in its development, said Modi. Urban India wants ease of living and it trusts the BJP, he added.
The prime minister noted that Maharashtra has become the sixth state where people have elected the BJP to power for a third straight term, stressing that it underscores people's truth in its good governance model.
The BJP-led alliance had won a majority in the 2019 assembly polls in Maharashtra but its then ally Thackeray joined hands with the opposition to form government, which fell in 2022, paving the way for the saffron party to power as it allied with the faction headed by Eknath Shinde, who became the chief minister.
"The Congress and its ecosystem had thought that by spreading lies in the name of the Constitution, they could divide the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in small groups. This is a solid slap on their faces," said Modi.
The Congress and its allies have failed to grasp the changed realities of the country's mood, as voters do not want instability and believe in "nation first" and not in those preferring "kursi first".
The voters in Maharashtra also evaluated the Congress on the basis of the false promises made in other states like Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, he added.
"Neither their false promises nor their dangerous agenda worked in Maharashtra," Modi said.
The prime minister said the Maharashtra election also shows that only one Constitution will work in India and that was given to the people of the country by B R Ambedkar.
The Congress and its allies were again trying to create a wall of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
"I want to say this to the Congress and its allies that no force in the world can bring back Article 370 and insult our Constitution," Modi said.
His party has respected the country's values and traditions, and India will now advance with the mantra of "vikas aur virasat" (development and heritage), Modi said.
The Congress, he said, has been stoking divides in the name of region and caste, and that its espousal of urban naxalism has become a challenge for the country. The remote control of this urban naxalism is outside the country, he said.