PM Modi hits back at opposition.
Setting the tone for the Lok Sabha polls, leaders from 22 opposition parties came together at a mega rally here and declared they will fight unitedly to oust the Narendra Modi government which has passed its expiry date".
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called for collective leadership , raising a slogan for a change at the Centre. Delhi mein sarkar badal do, she chanted.
"This mega rally is the beginning of the end of the BJP and after there is change in the country, we will hold a victory rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds, the West Bengal chief minister said.Several speakers called for putting up a joint candidate in each constituency to take on the BJP and save the country from what was described as the poison of communalism and vendetta politics".
The issue of prime ministership would be decided after the polls and the regional parties would play an important role, they said The leaders decided to hold opposition rallies next in Andhra Pradesh capital Amravati and New Delhi. Chief ministers N Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and H D Kumaraswamy attended the parade ground rally.
Reacting to the rally, PM Modi said on Twitter:
Earlier PM said in Silvassa, "The 'mahagathbandhan' or grand alliance is not just against Narendra Modi but also against the people of India.... They can make any number of gathbandhan to save their parivars, their sultanates... but they will never be able to win hearts of the people ," the prime minister said on Saturday while addressing a public function at Silvassa, the capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
In a dig at the opposition rally organised by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Kolkata, he said the BJP has only one MLA in West Bengal, "but still they are so afraid of us because we follow the path of truth that they have gathered parties from across the country and are crying 'bachao, bachao, bachao' (save us)".
"... their world is centred around the progress of their families, their kith and kin. In their world, there is no vision for India," Modi said, adding the countrymen are his family and his sole aim is the progress of the nation.
"They are troubled as to why Modi is taking stringent action against corruption. Should I not fight against corruption....they are troubled as to why Modi has banished the middlemen from the corridors of power....
"They are so angry that I prevented them from looting public money that they are trying to form the 'mahagathbandhan'," Modi said, adding that these leaders have come together out of fear.
"They can make any number of gathbandhan to save their parivars, their sultanates, but they cannot run away from their karmas. Their karmas are following them on each and every step," Modi said.
"Their politics, which is centred around hatred for Modi, can get traction in newspapers and television channels, but it will never be able to win hearts of the people who are watching their every move," the prime minister said, after laying a foundation stone for a medical college.
Against the backdrop of the West Bengal government denying permission to BJP to organise yatras in West Bengal, the PM said political parties in the TMC-ruled state are not even allowed to carry out their programmes.
"Party workers are killed there during elections and they talk about saving democracy. When those involved in suffocating democracy talk of saving it, then people will say 'wah kya baat hai...'," he said, mocking the parties opposing the BJP.
Leaders of an array of opposition parties are taking part in the 'United India Rally' in Kolkata, where Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee gave a call for changing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Modi said all these parties once used to abuse the Congress, but now their leaders are together as the ground is slipping beneath their feet.
"Their world starts with hatred for Modi and ends by hurling abuses at Modi. Their world is centred around the progress of their families, their kith and kin. In their world, there is no vision for India," Modi said.
"While my world starts with how to bring changes to the life of 125 crore people of the country without any focus on family and with a vision to make India the foremost developed country in the 21st century," Modi said.
In the 60-year rule of one party, not much work was done as they gave more importance to names instead of work, he said. In the last four-and-half years many new schemes have been launched but none of them are associated with the name Modi, he said.
"This shows that our intention is to ensure the progress of the people and not just one family.. this is not our culture.. for me the 1.25 crore country men are my family," Modi said.
Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference chairman Farooq Abdullah, socialist leader Sharad Yadav and DMK leader M K Stalin were there. Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha also sat on the dais.
Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel was among the early speakers.
Also present were Benoy Tamang of GJM and three leaders from the northeast -- Badruddin Ajmal of AIDUF of Assam, Lalduhawma of Zoram Nationalist Party of Mizoram and former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, who quit the BJP on Tuesday.
The Congress was represented by Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Kharge read out a message from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi wishing success to the rally.Apparently hinting at differences between the parties, Kharge recited a couplet saying their hands should meet even if the hearts don't.
Deve Gowda said a small group of senior leaders should be set up to decide on a roadmap on forming the new government and ensuring good governance. Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called upon the people to defeat the "dangerous" Bharatiya Janata Party government at any cost.
"The Modi government has done what Pakistan couldn't do for the last 70 years. They have divided the country on the basis of religion, caste and creed, he said.In order to save the country, we have to ensure that the Shah-Modi duo does not return to power, he said referring also to BJP president Amit Shah.
If they do, they will change the Constitution and turn India into a dictatorship." NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said there is no institution which has not been destroyed by the Modi government.Bahujan Samaj Party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra said the SP-BSP alliance has been formed in Uttar Pradesh to ensure that the BJP is ousted.
"Factories have closed down, farmers are in distress. The minorities and the Dalits are the worst affected under this government. So the BJP government needs to be uprooted," he said.Echoing him, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said many thought that the SP and the BSP will not be able to clinch an alliance. The tie-up has made the BJP "very insecure", he added. "The BJP is now thinking how to win at least one seat in UP, he said, in an apparent reference to Modi's own Varanasi constituency.
DMK president M K Stalin said the coming Lok Sabha polls will be akin to the second freedom struggle, this time against the "radical Hinduism" of the saffron party."Prime Minister Narendra Modi is afraid of a few people, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," Stalin mocked.
Opposition leaders also lashed out at the Modi government over the deal for Rafale military aircraft, accusing it of crony capitalism .
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said Modi will have sleepless nights after witnessing the opposition meet.Referring to the recent political developments in his own state, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy accused the BJP of horse-trading even while talking about fighting corruption.
"Democracy is being reduced to a number game. Legislators are being treated as a commodity, he said BJP dissident Shatrughan Sinha said he was not afraid of being removed from the party, insisting he would continue to "show the mirror" to it and "call a spade a spade".
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha charged that Modi's is the first government since Independence which has played mischief with development statistics.Arun Shourie urged opposition leaders to be like Arjuna of the Mahabharata and work with the single aim of removing the BJP government.
Sharad Yadav said the country stands at a crucial juncture and after the Lok Sabha polls the "anti-people and corrupt government" will be thrown into the Ganga.Several opposition leaders demanded the use of ballot papers instead of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) which they said were the source of "all sorts of malpractices".After the marathon rally, the leaders formed a four-member committee to recommend electoral reforms, charging the BJP of EVM "manipulation".
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