Congress in ICU, says Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at opposition parties, saying the Congress, which has been trying to forge a “mahagathbandhan” for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and those part of the grand alliance form its “support system”. Modi’s attack came during a video interaction with booth level workers of the BJP from Jaipur (Rural), Nawada, Ghaziabad, Hazaribagh and Arunachal West parliamentary constituencies.
Responding to a query of a BJP worker from Arunachal Pradesh about the opposition’s efforts to forge a grand alliance, Modi said it was not a matter of opposition unity but an attempt was being made to do branding for some political parties in the name of “mahagathbandhan”.
“This ‘mahagathbandhan’ is not a bond of knot but is an alliance of some opportunistic political parties to hide their weaknesses,” he said.
“They are trying to stitch an alliance of parties while we are stitching people’s hearts. This is their compulsion. Our work is to stitch relations which is our national duty,” he said.
Modi said there was confusion in the “mahagathbandhan” over leadership and policy. Their intention was corrupt. “Their only motto is ‘Modi hatao’, ‘Modi hatao’ and ‘Modi hatao’ (Remove Modi) while our determination is to accelerate the path of development.”
Dubbing the idea of “mahagathbandhan” as an example of the BJP’s rising power, he sought to know why the Congress, which had once passed a resolution against alliances, was now backtracking.
“Some years back, the Congress passed a resolution in Madhya Pradesh saying it will never go for any alliance. What is the reason today they are ready to have alliance with any political party? Today they are saying …save me,” he said.
The Prime Minister asserted that Congress efforts to form a grand coalition were not going to make any difference to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. (IANS)