Cong-NCP failed to gauge national sentiment: Modi

Prime Minister says get ready for ‘new India’; Opposition hits back

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were defeated in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections because they did not understand the mood of the people, and will face a similar fate in the upcoming assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.

Wearing a Maratha warrior’s headgear, Modi addressed a rally in Satara in support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s newly inducted leader from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Udayanraje Bhosale, a former MP. The Satara Lok Sabha bypoll and state assembly polls are slated for October 21. Praising Udyanraje and his cousin, Shivendraraje Bhosale — both descendants of 17th century Maratha leader Chhatarpati Shivaji —Modi said that while previously the BJP had to be content with celebrating Shivaji’s ideology, “now, his entire family is with us.”

“Earlier, Satara district was the base of the Congress and the NCP, but now they are not even getting a candidate for the Lok Sabha bypolls,” Modi said.

“Congress and NCP do not understand national sentiment. They were taught a lesson in the Lok Sabha elections and now Maharashtra and Haryana will also punish them severely (in Assembly elections and bypolls),” he said.

Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan refused to contest the Satara by-poll as he knew the outcome, Modi said.

Responding to the PM, Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil said, “The NCP candidate from Satara Mr Shriniwas Patil, is a two-time MP and an ex-bureaucrat. Let me also remind Modiji that he was one of the few governors whom his government did not remove after coming to power in 2014. If such a candidate is weak, it is a big joke.”

Addressing campaign rallies at Pune, Satara and Parli, Modi also said that despite a lot of talk in the last 70 years, it was only his government which dared abrogate Article 370.

“Since the last 70 years, the entire country was facing the hurdle of Article 370. There was a lot of talk to remove it, but no one dared to do it,” he said. “The entire world can see the newfound confidence of New India. Everyone can feel the change. They are discussing HowdyModi (event in the US),” Modi said.

Everyone needs to stay ready for the new economy of New India, Modi said.

Addressing a rally in Niphad NCP president Sharad Pawar on Thursday questioned Modi’s “doob maro” jibe directed at the Opposition in connection with scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and said there was no need to talk about brining back the controversial provision. Modi had on Wednesday slammed Opposition leaders, seeking a link between the scrapping of Article 370 and the Maharashtra Assembly polls, and told them to go drown (doob maro) for criticising the nullification of the constitutional provision.