Modi gives NDA ‘New India’ goal, sets tone for ’19

Setting the agenda for the 2019 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked ruling NDA allies to work in tandem to work towards building a “New India”

Asking NDA leaders to adhere to the “pro-poor” plank used extensively and successfully in the recent Assembly elections, Mr Modi clarified that the “youth vote bank” should also be pursued vigorously and consolidated.

The NDA leaders passed a resolution during a meeting held late Monday endorsing the Modi government’s policies, and called upon people to vote him back to power in the next general election.

Addressing party chiefs of 33 NDA constituents during the meeting, Mr Modi said all achievements of the government were possible because of the support it received from the people

and allies. Mr Modi said he wants to see a “New India” and a developed India by 2022 moving in the right direction with people proud of the country. While asking NDA allies to highlight and implement

Continued from Page 1 poor-centric schemes of the government, the Prime Minister also said that the neo-middle class wants to become part of the country’s development story.

In his concluding remark after all allies expressed their views, he said that the work on the NDA’s expansion would continue, and said the constituents should strive for evolving a consensus among political parties on electoral reforms.

“Just finished a meeting with our valued NDA allies. We had a fruitful exchange of views on a wide range of issues,” Mr Modi tweeted after the meeting.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, who has often targeted the Modi government and the BJP, had a separate meeting with the Prime Minister, and sought a loan waiver for farmers in Maharashtra.

The meeting, only the second such gathering of NDA constituents since it came to power at the Centre in 2014, was also attended by the new friends the coalition has won over in Goa and the northeastern states. The resolution heaped praise on the Modi government’s performance and highlighted its pro-farmer and pro-poor works, besides its “foreign policy successes”.