New Delhi: Kickstarting BJP’s poll campaign for Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday wooed voters with a host of promises as he took a dig at Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) saying the former should stick to staging protests as they were good at it and allow Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to carry on with the work of running a good government.
“If you ask a driver to suddenly start cooking, will he be able to do it? People should do the work they are good at doing. Similarly, these people (AAP) should do what they are best at doing which is staging protests and taking out demonstrations and let us do what we are best at doing which is running a good government,” the Prime Minister said.
Modi singled out ‘anarchist’ AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for attack and asked voters to punish him for “wasting” one year. Without naming Kejriwal or his party, Modi said 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.
“Have you ever seen a leader who openly admits he is an anarchist and believes in its practice? If you want to spread anarchy, why don’t you settle down in the jungles with the naxalites?” he asked.
He further shared his dream of building a house for every slum dweller as India completes 75 years of Independence in 2022.
“I have a dream every slum dweller in Delhi should have a house of his own by 2022, when India completes 75 years of Independence,” said Prime Minister Modi.
“The poor today want a record, an answer, of what has been done and what will be done for them? I assure you that I will facilitate 24 hours supply of electricity and make Delhi free from the noise pollution of generators,” he said.
He further lauded the success of the Jan Dhan Yojana and said it clearly reflected the failure of the Congress in addressing the issues of the poor, when they were in power.
“Did you ever see a poor person standing inside a bank during Congress’s regime? It clearly shows who used to work for rich and who is working effortlessly to address issues of the poor of nation. I feel proud in saying around 11 crore people have opened bank accounts till 10th January under the Jan Dhan Yojana,” he said.
“On August 15, I had announced that we will bring the poor to banks. Look at the huge heart of the poor of the nation; they opened up bank accounts with at least rupees five or ten, even when they could have opened their accounts with zero balance. From rupees five to rupees 200, 8500 crore rupees were deposited in banks by the poor during the process of their zero-account-bal account openings,” he added.
The Prime Minister further said he was surprised Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu was so well-informed about Delhi.
“I was surprised to see, our Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu has as much knowledge about Delhi, as much he has about Hyderabad or Vijayawada. It is an example of how work can be done if you really have intentions of working,” he said.
He also thanked the people of Jammu and Kashmir for voting for his party in the state assembly elections.
“I would like to extend my greetings to people of J-K for reposing their faith in democracy and voting in large numbers. BJP has achieved a historical success in J-K, I’m grateful to people of the state,” he said
Top party leaders, including BJP president Amit Shah, national general (organisation) Ram Lal, union ministers Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Piyush Goyal and the seven party Members of Parliament from Delhi were present at the event. Chief Ministers of Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, where the party captured power in recent elections, were also present.
BJP, which was out of power in Delhi for the past 16 years, is confident of winning the polls with a clear majority this time with the help of Prime Minister Modi’s charisma.Â
(With inputs from agencies)