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A supporter of Gujarat Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi shouts slogans during a rally addressed by him in the eastern city of Bhubaneswar yesterday.
IANS/Bhubaneswar
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi yesterday took a dig at efforts by some political parties to set up a Third Front, and said the move has only one purpose - to save the Congress.
Addressing a public meeting in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, the Gujarat chief minister said such fronts take birth just before elections and their only aim is to help the Congress.
Noting that the eastern parts of India have not grown at par with western and central India, he said it happened only because states in the region have been ruled by the so-called Third Front parties.
“If we want to develop India’s eastern region, we need to teach a lesson to those who have been advocating a Third Front,” he said.
“Of the 11 parties which are clamouring for a Third Front, nine have supported the Congress always and when the elections come, they wear the mask of a Third Front,” Modi said.
“The only work of this Third Front is to save Congress. Whenever the Congress is in trouble, they appear. Unless we identify this Third Front, we cannot purify Indian politics,” said Modi, kick-starting the party’s campaign in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Criticising Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue of unemployment and migration, Modi said a large number of people from the state migrate to Gujarat for jobs as employment opportunities are not available at home. Patnaik is a member of the Third Front.
“It surprises me even more when I find most of the people belong to Ganjam. When I ask them where your district is, they tell me ‘it is the district of our chief minister’,” Modi said.
“What leaves me worried is that the people from the chief minister’s district in Odisha have to migrate for a job,” he said. “Who wants to leave his old parents, state, agriculture farm, and friends,” Modi asked.
There are no comments.
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