 "LS polls 2024 Campaign Day 1: PM Modi slams Cong for 'using & throwing' leaders, Rahul Gandhi questions EVMs")
PM Narendra Modi and INDIA bloc leader Rahul Gandhi geared up their campaigns for the Lok Sabha elections just a day after schedule for the polls was announced by the Election Commission.
PM Modi addressed BJP’s first joint rally with TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party President Pawan Kalyan at Andhra Pradesh’s Boppudi village in Palnadu after the trio agreed to run for the elections together earlier this month.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also sharpened his attacks on the Modi-led government in his maiden campaign rally from Mumbai’s iconic Shivaji Park, accompanied by his INDIA bloc allies. The grand old party targeted the BJP-led government on issues from unemployment to EVMs.
Here are some highlights from DAY 1 of rival leaders’ rallies as they launch into action for Lok Sabha polls.
Narendra Modi
1- PM Modi did not miss to mention his slogan for a ‘double-engine’ government and ‘Viksit Bharat’ and promised to expedite development in the state.
“The aim of the NDA is to build a developed Andhra Pradesh for a developed India! With the double-engine government of the NDA in Andhra Pradesh, development here will receive even more momentum.”
2- The prime minister slammed the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government and said the state ministers are “competing in corruption” and people feel “betrayed”. He hit out at Congress and the ruling YSRCP as “pieces of the same cloth".
“In the NDA, we all move forward together, but…Congress party, which has only one agenda - to ‘use and throw’ the people of the coalition! Even if Congress may have had to form alliances out of necessity today, their mindset remains the same."
Impact Shorts
More Shortsఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ రెండు విషయాలలో నిర్ణయించుకుంది:
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 17, 2024
ప్రగతి కోసం ఎన్డీయేకు ఓటు వేయడం.
వైఎస్సార్సీపీ కి ఓటు వెయ్యకపోవడం. pic.twitter.com/0pI6Xfei1T
3- As election results will be announced on June 4, Modi reiterated the saffron party’s target of winning more than 400 seats in Lok Sabha polls.
“The entire country is saying, ‘4 June Ko 400 Paar’. For a developed India, 400 Paar; for a developed Andhra Pradesh, 400 Paar,” Modi said
5- Urging citizens to vote for the NDA alliance while highlighting the various schemes brought out by the government in the past five years, PM Modi said the farmers of the Palanadu district have been given Rs. 700 crore under the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.
Modi is currently on a tour to the southern states, with his next destination being Karnataka’s Shivamogga and Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore on Monday.
Rahul Gandhi
1- Rahul Gandhi said that few private companies want to rule the country and that INDI alliance was fighting against the ‘system’ developed by the Modi-led government.
“People believe that we are fighting against a political party or against Narendra Modi. But this is not true. The 20-25 companies that want to rule the country have created a face in Modi’s name, which has what we call ‘shakti’ (power) in the Hindu religion. We are fighting against that ‘shakti’.”
2- Gandhi also questioned the authenticity of EVMs and said that King’s ( PM Modi) soul rests in EVMs.
“Without EVMs, Narendra Modi cannot win elections. We requested election commission, show us the EVM machine and…to our experts they refused to show us. We enquired about the machine and the paper coming out from it, but they declined to count those papers.”
EVM के बिना नरेंद्र मोदी चुनाव नहीं जीत सकते हैं।
— Congress (@INCIndia) March 17, 2024
: @RahulGandhi जी
📍शिवाजी पार्क, मुंबई#INDIAjeetega pic.twitter.com/PS55Kf77rD
3- The Congress leader blamed the Modi-led BP government for using central agencies like ED, CBI and Income Tax against the Opposition and recalled that during his 50-hour questioning, an officer told him. “You are not scared of anyone, you can defeat Narendra Modi”.
4- Gandhi commented on top leaders of Shiv Sena’s (UBT) and NCP quitting Congress in Maharashtra before polls, and said that they left because they were “threatened”.
“Many top leaders from Maharashtra have left Congress party and they cry and call my mother. Sonia ji I am ashamed, I cannot fight them and cannot go in jail…Just like this Shiv Sena and NCP people went away. They all went because they were threatened.”
5-Reiterating allegations of corruption through electoral bonds, the Wayanad MP said, that bonds are nothing but a “national-level extortion racket”.
“Electoral bonds are nothing but a national level extortion racket which is run in four ways – by taking a percentage share from companies in lieu of allotting contracts; by issuing threats through the ED, the CBI, and other central agencies; by taking cuts through shell companies; and by taking money after awarding contracts.”
Tamil Nadu’s CM MK Stalin, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, RJD leader and former Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Jharkhand CM Champai Soren, and former CM Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren were some important attendees of the Shivaji Park rally.
Election Commission on Saturday announced that Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1, 2024, with results counting on June 4.
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