Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said development was the panacea for all ills afflicting Uttar Pradesh and appealed to the voters to bring the BJP to power in the state in the 2017 assembly elections.Setting the stage for Bharatiya Janata Party's poll campaign in the crucial state, Modi said he will strive to do in five years in Uttar Pradesh what could not be done in the past 50 years. Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. The BJP currently has 71 MPs from the state.
Modi, an MP from Varanasi, said: "We have to move only on development. The work that the previous governments could not do in the past 50 years, I will try to do in five years."
He said the state was afflicted by nepotism, corruption, communalism and casteism."People are being troubled by the poison of communalism. Development is the answer to all the ills," he said. Speaking at a well-attended rally on the conclusion of the two-day BJP executive meeting here, the Prime Minister accused the ruling Samajwadi Party and opposition Bahujan Samaj Party of entering into a "contractual arrangement" in Uttar Pradesh.Both Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati make allegations against each other when in opposition but do not take action when they are in power in the state, the Prime Minister said.
"There is an interesting contract in UP. There is a collusion between Mulayam Singh and Mayawati (about coming to power every five years)," Modi said. "Till the time this five-five year loot ends, UP will not progress. Please give me a chance to pay back. Give me a chance. If we do anything for personal gains in the next five years, you can kick us out," Modi said.
The Prime Minister said his government had taken several steps to curb corruption and saved leak of Rs 15,000 crore in cooking gas subsidy. "Uttar Pradesh gets one lakh crore rupees from the government of India. I do not know whether it reaches you," he said.
He said if BJP returned to power in the state, every penny will be utilised properly. "We can transform the future of the youth with the available resources also. Hence, I want your blessings."Modi also referred to central government's decision to abolish interviews for Group 'C' and 'D' posts and said he had urged the state governments to follow suit.Modi, who drew rapturous applause from the gathering on some of his remarks, said a new 'yagya' was starting in Uttar Pradesh which will see the "end of nepotism, casteism and dishonesty".
Taking potshots at the Akhilesh Yadav government over law and order in the state, Modi said Uttar Pradesh has to be saved from "lawlessness" on the streets. Modi said of about 18,000 unelectrified villages in the country, 1,529 were in Uttar Pradesh. "Of these, 1,352 have already been electrified (by BJP-led central government)," he said.The prime minister talked about steps taken by his government for farmers, saying the crop insurance scheme had low premium. Talking about his government's achievements in the past two years, he said the speed of road construction had picked up and there had been the highest production of coal, urea and electricity.