CONG PRACTISES VOTE BANK POLITICS: PM

PM Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of pr ac ti sing vote bank politics and dividing people to get power. He said votebank politics was not limited to elections now.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of practising vote bank politics and dividing people to get into power.

The Prime Minister made the charge at a rally here just ahead of the announcement of Assembly election dates for Rajasthan and four other states in November and December.

Asking people not to let the Congress come to power again, Modi said vote bank politics is not limited to elections now.

Political parties, which do vote bank politics, divide the bureaucracy when they are in power and this badly affects governance, he said.

"They allocate the budget as per (their) vote banks and therefore overall development does not happen," he said at the meeting which marked the end of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's statewide political 'yatra'.

"The Congress has established this tradition in the past 60 years," Modi said.

"With great difficulty, the country has taken the right direction now after 60 years. Don't give them another chance," he said.

He said the Congress leaders' high command is a family and they can do politics only be revering it.

He accused the party of "low-level" politics.

The Congress leaders were questioning the surgical strikes by the Army across the Line of Control two years ago and "insulting" soldiers, he said.

"They should be ashamed of indulging in such politics, Modi said.

The rally marked the end of Raje's 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra', an outreach exercise by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Prime Minister's rally ended shortly before the Election Commission's press conference in New Delhi announcing the polling dates for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana.

Rajasthan will go to the polls on December 7. Counting will take place in all five states on December 11, the EC announced.