Kickstarting Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll campaign for Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday wooed voters with a host of promises as he singled out ‘anarchist’ Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal for attack and asked voters to punish him for “wasting” one year.
Without naming Kejriwal or his party, Modi said at a rally that if the AAP leader wants to be an “anarchist” as he has claimed to be, he should go to jungles to join naxals as Delhi cannot have anarchy. Kejriwal had said about a year ago that he is an anarchist.
During the 30-minute address, he suggested that Kejriwal has “mastery” in “lies” and dharnas and protests and should be given that role only and that power should be given to BJP, which has “mastery” in administration.
At the rally at Ramlila Ground attended by all three new BJP chief ministers of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, Modi sought a clear mandate for his party to ensure all round development and create a ‘new’ Delhi.
Delhi, which is under President’s Rule, is expected to have assembly polls next month.
Promising to take Delhi to new heights of development, the PM said people will be given an option of choosing their power service provider on the lines of mobile number portability and pledged to make Delhi slum-free by 2022.
He also promised to usher in a corruption-free system, saying it has been started at the top and gradually it will reach down to colonies.
In an apparent reference to Kejriwal’s comment made almost a year back that he was an anarchist, Modi said “if somebody is an anarchist, he should go to the jungles and join the naxals. Do not allow Delhi’s pride to be affected by anarchy. Delhi will not benefit from it”.
Apparently referring to the resignation by Kejriwal’s government on February 14 last year after being in power for 49 days, he said, “people should punish those because of whom one year of Delhi was wasted.”
Committing to provide a corruption-free society, Modi said he already commenced the cleansing from the top and asked if anyone has heard any complaint about him ever since he took over as PM some seven months back.
“Trust me, I will clean up the system. I have started from the top and I will take it to the bottom. People take money from auto drivers, shopkeeper, the poor people... It will all stop,” the PM said.
Reaching out to the vast slum population, he promised to replace the slums with concrete houses by 2022, saying “your dream is my dream.” He said steps have already been initiated in this regard by the urban development ministry.
While talking about schemes benefitting the poor, he referred to Jan Dhan and said bankers, who earlier used to be reluctant to open accounts of the people from lower economic strata, are now going house-to-house to open zero-balance accounts.
“So far, 11 crore accounts have been opened as against the target of 7 crore by January 26,” he said adding though people had an option of opening zero-balance accounts, Rs 8,500 crore were deposited by them. In Delhi alone, 19.50 lakh accounts were opened under the scheme.
Taking a dig at the Congress over its claim of standing by the poor, he said “who was running government for the rich and who is running government for the poor has been proved by the Jan Dhan scheme”.
Promising 24 hour power supply to Delhi, Modi said he will rid the city of generators which will also ensure a cleaner environment. “We will shut the voice of generators in Delhi. It will also help clean up the air by reducing poisonous gases.”
He said BJP was all set to take some “revolutionary steps” in Delhi which no one can even think of and talked about portability of choosing power service providers on the line of mobile number portability.
Assuring to end water woes in Delhi, he said BJP-ruled Haryana has promised to provide more water to Delhi after Central intervention.
He also hailed people of Jammu and Kashmir for coming out in large numbers and defeat the separatist forces.
Modi termed Amit Shah as the ‘most successful’ party president as under his leadership party has achieved unprecedented success in various states.
