Delhi Polls: PM Modi pitches himself as 'messiah' of poor

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched himself as a messiah of the poor in his last Delhi assembly election campaign speech, calling on the people of the Capital to give the Bharatiya Janata Party the kind of decisive mandate it had got in the Lok Sabha poll.

For Delhi to fulfil its true potential, it needs a BJP government with a strong majority so that an administration led by Kiran Bedi can take it on the road to development, he said in an address that was less confrontational toward his opponents than the one on Tuesday, although he still attacked rival AAP without naming it on the grounds of taking money from sources that were allegedly suspect.

We have to uplift the poor, Modi said, reiterating that 16 years of mistakes have to be reversed, referring to previous Congress administrations and the hiatus following the shortlived AAP government. He said he know what poverty meant, having been born into a poor family.

“My politics has only one aim — development,” he said. “Development will transform the lives of the poor — education for their children, medicines for their parents, and a house to stay in.” He expanded on the last point. “Where there are slums today, houses will be built, right where they live now, not far away. And it won’t be just four walls, these houses will have electricity, water, toilets, schools close by for the children.”

He said his government was fighting against corruption and not just talking about it, besides working for the welfare of the poor.

Modi cited the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which saw the opening of bank accounts covering 10 crore families in the record time of two months thanks to the hard work of bank officials. This has allowed the cooking gas subsidy to be transferred directly to recipients without getting siphoned off, he said. “This is how quickly the government has worked for the poor since coming to power,” Modi said.