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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Narendra Modi pitches for Jat votes in Meerut
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Narendra Modi pitches for Jat votes in Meerut

BJP leader blames ruling Samajwadi Party for communal tensions, Congress for poor development in region

Photo: Pradeep Gaur/MintPremium
Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

Meerut: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday made a pitch to the dominant Jat community in western Uttar Pradesh, blaming the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state for communal tensions in the region.

He attacked both the SP and the ruling Congress party at the Centre for poor development in the region.

Western Uttar Pradesh sends 14 candidates to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, to which elections are due by May.

Addressing a gathering in western Uttar Pradesh, which suffered communal riots in September that resulted in the deaths of 64 people, Modi said the SP government was unable to control riots whereas the situation in Gujarat was no longer of violence.

Gujarat suffered communal riots 12 years ago in which Hindu mobs killed at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, early into Modi’s first of four consecutive terms as the state’s chief minister. Rights groups and political rivals have long alleged he allowed or actively encouraged the attacks. Modi has always denied this, and a Supreme Court inquiry found no evidence to prosecute him.

Modi has since focused on development and bringing investments to his state, which he has extended to his national campaign.

“Why is that Meerut doesn’t have an airport? Why is there no express way between Delhi and Meerut. This (SP) government doesn’t want development, it is only interested in vote bank," Modi told the gathering.

“Farmers growing sugar cane are suffering because they are not getting their dues; sugar mills are not functioning. If Chaudhary Charan Singh and Mahendra Singh Tikait were alive, they would have taught this government a lesson. The minister of civil aviation (Ajit Singh) is also from this region, but there is no airport in the area," he said.

Singh heads the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), an ally of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance at the Centre. His father Charan Singh was India’s prime minister briefly in the late 1970s. Tikait was a prominent farmer leader from western Uttar Pradesh and president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union.

The BJP, which had an alliance with the RLD in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, is now targeting all the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh on its own. Singh’s party had won four seats in the previous election.

“By talking about Charan Singh and Mahendra Singh Tikait, Modi has tried to get Jat and Hindu votes in his favour," said Badri Narayan, an Allahabad-based political expert.

But “even though he is talking about peace and brotherhood, Hukum Singh (a member of the Uttar Pradesh assembly from the BJP) is one of the accused in Muzaffarnagar riots and he was sitting on the dais with other BJP leaders," he added.

Modi said that while SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, could not compete with him in terms of development and providing power to farmers and jobs to youth, they should at least improve law and order in the state.

“Meerut (in Uttar Pradesh) and Ahmedabad (in Gujarat) used to have riots 10 years ago. But people of Ahmedabad decided to change and live in peace. There are no riots now. We have to stop bloodshed in Uttar Pradesh also. If people think BJP can make Uttar Pradesh riot-free, then people must bless us. There is political patronage to criminals and cases of harassing women are on the rise," Modi added.

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Published: 03 Feb 2014, 12:51 AM IST
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