SAHARANPUR: Launching a fierce attack on the Opposition on the issue of graft and probity in public life, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said while the former’s only aim was to take cuts and ‘commission’, the BJP-ruled NDA was on a ‘mission’. Addressing a public rally in UP’s Saharanpur on Saturday, ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 19, PM Modi said, “The leaders in the INDI alliance are always looking for avenues to take commission, while we, in the NDA, are on a mission (to take the country forward). During its reign at the Centre, the Congress always encouraged and gave primacy to commission. (Construction of) The Ram Temple in Ayodhya was our mission, not an election propaganda or promise.” Renewing his attack on the Opposition over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Shakti’ remark, he said it was unfortunate that the leaders in the Opposition alliance were standing against ‘Shakti’, which broadly translates to women’s power. “This is the soil of Maa Shakti. We are a country that believes in ‘Shakti’ and worships the deity embodying it. However, it is our grave misfortune that some leaders in the INDI alliance are openly calling for a fight against Shakti. The ancient texts and the Puranas are replete with accounts of what happened to those who tried to destroy Shakti,” PM Modi said. Recalling his visit to the city a decade ago, PM Modi said the country had fallen on hard times back then and going through a phase of “great despair and crisis”. “I was here in Saharanpur for an election meeting 10 years ago. Back then, the country was in dire straits. It was going through a period of great despair and crisis. I remember promising you all at the time and I won’t rest till I can lift the country from the crisis…that I wouldn’t let the pride and prestige of our motherland be called into question. I vowed never allow my country stop in its pursuit of excellence,” PM Modi recalled. “I resolved then that someday, with your blessings, I will rid the country of its ills and afflictions. I promised to turn despair into hope, and hope into faith. You showered your love and affection on me and I left no stone unturned to repay your faith and support,” Prime Minister Modi added. Saharanpur, along with seven other seats in Uttar Pradesh, will go to the polls in the first phase of the general elections on April 19. The country’s most populous state, which sends the maximum number of members to the Lower House, at 80, will vote in all seven phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 23 and June 1. Earlier in the 2019 elections, turning the arithmetic of the SP-BSP ‘Mahagatbandhan’ in Uttar Pradesh upside down, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The partners in the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav’s SP and Mayawati’s BSP, could only muster 15 seats. The counting of votes for all 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country is scheduled for June 4.
