BJP has connect with people; Cong can't digest my popularity: Modi in Bangalore rally

Bangalore, Nov 17: Lashing out at the UPA government for sitting in “ivory towers”, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi on Sunday said that Congress was an indoor player while BJP was an outdoor player having a connect with the people.

He also charged Congress with using the country's youth as only voters while maintaining that his party considered younger people as power.

“For Congress, the youth are just voters but for us they are power. Our priority is to empower the youth to make India strong. This is our dream,” he told a rally in Bangalore.

Mr. Modi said with more than 65 per cent of the country's population below the age of 35, BJP wanted them to contribute to India's development which will also help in global growth.

He also accused the Centre of failure to provide jobs to the youth, saying while the UPA government's budget for skill development was Rs. 1,000 crore, a small state like Gujarat has allocated Rs. 800 crore for it.

Alleging that Congress and UPA government played vote-bank politics, he said after coming to power in 2004, the Central government had overturned POTA thereby allowing terrorists and Naxals to go “scot-free“.

Lauding Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government for setting up the IT Ministry, he recalled that it was under the NDA government that the Moon mission was conceptualised which ultimately laid the groundwork for the Mars probe.

He said his political opponents were plotting conspiracies to defeat him. "The attacks on the BJP and Modi are sharpening. They simply cannot digest (my popularity)," the 63-year-old leader said.

He alleged that many media publications and singer Lata Mangeshkar had come under attack for praising him. The government was also trying to curb free of speech on social media, he said.

Hinting that people had not taken the allegations against him seriously, he said in the history of Karnataka no political party had ever seen such a gathering.

"It is a sea of saffron in Bengaluru," Narendra Modi said.

He attacked the UPA government for letting current account deficit and inflation get out of control. The economic growth had dipped and unemployment was on the rise, he said. “The rupee is in ICU,'” he said.

Addressing the local concerns he said, the Information Technology industry which was growing at 40% during the Vajpayee regime had also slowed down.

The Gujarat Chief Minister was accompanied by the BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior state BJP leaders such as Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar and Ananth Kumar at the rally. The state leaders handed over a cheque of Rs. 35 lakh for the installation of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue in Gujarat.

Over 4,000 policemen were deployed to ensure security at the rally.

He opened his speech by congratulating Sachin Tendulkar and Professor C.N.R. Rao on being honoured with the Bharat Ratna.