VIJAYAWADA: A day after EC announced the schedule for Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday moved in swiftly to weave in the date of results, June 4, with NDA’s slogan of ‘Ab Ki Baar, 400 Paar’.
“The entire country is saying, ‘4 June Ko 400 Paar’. For a developed India, 400 Paar; for a developed Andhra Pradesh, 400 Paar,” he said while addressing the first joint rally of BJP-TDP-Jana Sena combine at Boppudi village in Palnadu district after the trio forged an alliance earlier this month.
Dubbing Congress and Andhra Pradesh’s governing party YSRCP as “pieces of the same cloth”, PM urged people of the state not to make “the same mistake” again of perceiving them as two separate entities. He said both parties are run by the same family and thus they are same. Andhra unit of Congress is headed by YSRCP president and CM Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister, YS Sharmila.
Pitching for a double engine govt for the development of Andhra Pradesh, Modi said NDA has gained strength with TDP and Jana Sena joining it. He said NDA will take forward the regional aspirations and national interests together.
The meeting witnessed the return of TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to the NDA fold after a gap of six years. This was also the first time in a decade that both Modi and Naidu shared stage at an election meeting. Naidu left NDA before the 2019 elections to join hands with Congress. After losing in 2019 AP assembly polls, Naidu remained neutral maintaining equidistance between NDA and UPA.
Modi and Naidu shared several lighter moments at the venue amid applause from the large crowd.
The public meeting was dubbed ‘prajagalam’ or people’s voice. Criticising the govt headed by YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Modi said his ministers are competing with each another in corruption. “The Andhra people have resolved to unseat the corrupt govt, and to bring NDA govt both at the Centre and in the state,” he said.
Showering praise on Naidu and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, the Prime Minister said that both have been fighting for the rights of people and development of Andhra Pradesh for long.
Modi said the NDA govt between 2014 and 2019 sanctioned 11 central institutions to make Andhra Pradesh a hub of education sector and promised to take infrastructure projects in the state forward along with a port-led blue economy.
Invoking Telugu pride, Modi said the founder of TDP, NT Rama Rao, had always fought for the Telugu self-respect, the poor and the farmers. He said NDA govt respected NTR by releasing a special coin to commemorate him on his birth centenary. Another legendary Telugu leader PV Narasimha Rao whom Congress “insulted” was also respected by NDA govt by bestowing Bharat Ratna on him, he added.
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