Jaipur, July 7: Attacking the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said people are calling the party "bail gadi" because many of its senior leaders are out on bail in various cases.
"The work which is being done now (by the BJP in the state and at the Centre) could have been done earlier also. You are aware of the intention of the previous governments. It is because of their intentions, the people are now calling the Congress a 'bail gadi'.
"Many senior Congress leaders and former ministers were out on bail," Modi said while addressing a public meeting here.
With "bail gadi" sounds like the Hindi word for "bullock cart", Modi emphasised that by "bail" he was referring to the relief given by courts to senior Congress leaders, who are facing legal battles.
Before addressing the meeting Modi laid the foundation stone for several infrastructure projects, with a total outlay of over Rs 2,100 crore, including elevated road project for Ajmer, water supply and sewerage projects in Ajmer, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Sikar and Mount Abu.
He also said that the central government and the state government were working together for the progress of Rajasthan. The state would face assembly polls later in 2018.
"Never forget the tough circumstances in which Vasundhara Raje took oath in 2013. When she took oath, systems were not working properly. She has changed the work culture in the state.
"The previous government only indulged in laying the foundation stone of the projects and not completing them.
"We are working on ground level not on papers. Our projects are neither delayed nor abandoned. Development is our only agenda," Modi added.
He also said that farmers, women and Dalits are at the core of the Bharatiya Janata Party's government schemes.
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New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
