Kolkata: Ridiculing the idea of Third Front, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that states ruled by its constituents have remained backward and called upon the people to reject them. “Let the Third Front see which way the wind is blowing. BJP will form the government after coming Lok Sabha elections,” Modi said.
Taking head-on the Third Front constituents, which met in Delhi during the day, he said, “The idea behind Third Front is to make India a third-rate country. Eastern states have remained backward as these are ruled by the Third Front parties.” “Time has come to bid farewell to this idea of third front from Indian politics forever. In the western states, any third front constituent has never been in power. They have existed in the East and deprived it of development and took the states backward,” he said.
Attacking the Third Front for trying to encash secularism, Modi said, “Whenever elections come, they (the Third Front constituents) start talking about the poor people and harp on secularism. “They have never worked to ensure that fruits of development reached the Muslims. They have considered them as just a voter,” he said.
Claiming that per capita income of minorities was the highest in Gujarat, he said, “Government should have only one book of religion – that is the Constitution and only believe in nationalism.” PTI
‘Gandhi family twice denied opportunity to Pranab to become PM’
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday blamed the Gandhi family for twice denying the opportunity to Pranab Mukherjee to be the country’s prime minister. “When Indira Gandhi was assassinated Rajiv Gandhi was in Kolkata and he went back. Under a democracy, that time the senior-most minister in Indira Gandhi’s government was Pranab Mukherjee. It would have been good had he been sworn in as the country’s prime minister,” Modi told a party rally at Brigade Parade grounds here. “They didn’t give it. Not only that, the family (Gandhi) felt that something is going on. So when the Rajiv Gandhi government was formed, senior-most minister Pranabda was not even taken as a minister,” he said.
“Again in 2004, Pranabda was the senior-most politician. It was very natural that had madam Sonia Gandhi not wanted to become (PM), then the opportunity should have been given to Pranabda, but Manmohan Singhji was made ( PM). Pranabda was not given the opportunity,” he said, uring the people not to forget this. (PTI)
