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Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit day one of the Lok Sabha election campaign by mounting the “double-engine Sarkar” slogan and sharing the stage with new ally N Charababu Naidu of the TDP and Janasena leader Pawan Kalyan in Chilakulripet (Andhra Pradesh) on Sunday. Invoking iconic actor-politician NT Rama Rao and former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and lacing his speech with a smattering of Telugu, Modi touched a chord with the locals.
Modi exhorted the voters to support the NDA, as its return to power was essential to achieve Vikisit Bharat and Vikisit Andhra Pradesh.
Modi underlined the hypocrisy of the I.N.D.I.A. partners who fight locally in States like Kerala, West Bengal, and Punjab but claim to be a united front at the national level. “If they are indulging in infighting before elections, we can only imagine what they will do after the elections. While the NDA is trying to take everyone along, the Congress believes in the use-and-throw of alliance partners,” he said.
Asserting that the NDA will clinch 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, Modi appealed to the people of Andhra Pradesh to make it happen. “You need to bring the government back for the development of the country and Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
He promised that he would promote infrastructure and port-led development in the next five years if voted back to power.
NT Rama Rao’s daughter and State BJP President Purandheswari translated Modi’s speech into Telugu.
Modi said that the Congress and the YSRCP were two sides of the same coin. “The two parties in the State are headed by family members. They are trying to split the anti-YSRCP government votes,” he said.
The BJP recently tied up with the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh. It has been allotted six out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats and 10 Assembly seats in the seat-sharing arrangement with the TDP.
TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu showered praise on Modi and said that his name was synonymous with development. Incidentally, Naidu’s outbursts against Modi before the 2019 elections had rocked the alliance, prompting BJP leader Amit Shah to announce that the doors were shut on Naidu.
“There are no roads, no development, and no jobs in Andhra Pradesh in the last five years. The Jagan government mismanaged the State’s finances. His government is foisting false cases on political opponents,” he said.
The meeting gave the TDP the much-needed fillip as it kicked off the campaign for the crucial polls.
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