Modi, Rahul make final pitch for Lok Sabha polls

CAMPAIGN OVER PM appears at first press conference but doesn’t take questions

principal combatants,the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the challenger Congress, said they were on course to winning the people’s mandate to govern the nation for the next five years as the curtain dropped on Friday on a bitter and bruising campaign for the 17th general elections.

“The election has been amazing. Elections were held in a positive spirit. A government with full majority will come back after remaining in power for five years. This is probably happening after a very long time. This is a big deal in itself,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a press briefing -- his first in five years -he attended with BJP president Amit Shah.

Modi, whose constituency Varanasi will vote on Sunday in the final phase of polling, declined to answer questions, which he diverted to Shah, but used the occasion to thank the people of India.

“The people of India have been with me through ups and downs over the last five years.I thank the people for their love, respect and blessings.”

At the same briefing, Shah said the ruling dispensation would win more than 300 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha in an election he described as the most important ever fought by the BJP. It echoed a prediction by the PM at his final election rally earlier in the day.

BHOPAL: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he was confident that the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)-led dispensation will win over 300 seats, ending his campaign in the tribal seat of Khargone in Madhya Pradesh where he also talked about the valour of tribal leaders who fought against the British rule.

Modi, who kick-started his Lok Sabha campaign from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on March 28, has travelled 105,000 km during 57 days of campaign and held 142 election rallies.

Friday was the last day of campaign in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections; the final phase of voting in seven states and one Union Territory will be held on May 19.

Khargone is one of the three seats reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Tribes category, and one of eight parliamentary constituencies that will poll on Sunday.

Five years ago, the BJP had won 27 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state, including all eight that will poll on May 19, though the Congress won Ratlam, in a subsequent bypoll.

“From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Kutch to Kamrup, the whole nation is saying, ‘Ab ki baar, 300 paar, phir ek baar Modi sarkar’,” Modi said. “After decades you will elect a majority government for a second time in a row.”

As a large number of tribal persons from Khargone and Dhar thronged the venue shouting “Modi, Modi”, the prime minister recalled his long association with the tribals when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, which has a sizable tribal population.

Modi also highlighted the link between Meerut and Khargone through their associations with the 1857 War of Independence against British rule.

“My election campaign started from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Now the last rally is happening in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh. From a historical perspective, there is a connection between Meerut and Khargone, which is often not noticed. Both the cities are associated with the 1857 War of Independence,” he said.

“In Meerut, Indian soldiers rebelled against the British and in Khargone, freedom fighter Bhima Nayak led a tribal agitation and attained martyrdom,” he said.

“The election of 2019 is different from all the previous general elections. In this poll, people of India are voting for their country and not for any party. They are voting to build a New India,” Modi said.

MP Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said it has been proven that PM Modi is all about jumla (rhetoric) and has failed to deliver on welfare schemes. “He has done nothing for farmers and tribals...We are confident of winning all the seats going to polls in May 19,” he said.

Sanjay Parashar, who runs a retail shop in Khargone, said, “Modi takes credit for surgical strikes, but he should also take blame for the ill effects of demonetization and goods and services tax which is cumbersome and affected our business.”

Shikhar Namdeo, a student of a Polytechnic college, said, “We have come to see Modi as we see a strong leader, who can lead the country, in him. I love the aggressive way in which he speaks.”

› The election of 2019 is different from all the previous general elections. In this poll, people of India are voting for their country and not for any party. NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister