PM Modi criticises Cong over issuing 'jail' threat, ignoring development

Jammu: At his first elections rally in J&K on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ridiculed the Congress's threat to jail him if it had won more seats in the recent Lok Sabha elections and launched a scathing attack on the party for being corrupt overall.

Addressing a large BJP election rally in Doda town, days ahead of the first of the three-phase polls, PM Modi said that the malicious intention of the Congress had become clear by what its chief Mallikarjun Kharge said during his recent visit to J&K.

"See their arrogance... The Congress President said if the Congress had won another 20 seats during the Lok Sabha elections, they would put BJP leaders including Modi in jail. I want to ask the Congress, do they fight elections to put people in jail? Is this your only agenda? 2014, 2019, and 2024. After 60 years, the country's people have, three times, given us an opportunity to serve them. We run the government to crush corruption in the country. We run the government for the welfare of the common man of the country. Whenever there is no positive approach, then they have no agenda but to put people in jail. They should have talked something about the welfare of J&K but only talked about sending people to jail."

"We fight elections for the country’s honour and development and whenever I would alert people against the intentions of the Congress leaders, the Congress would mock me and also hurl abuses at me," he said.

"Let me tell you today that Congress is the most dishonest and the most misleading political party of the country and its royal family (the Gandhis) are the most corrupt politicians of the country," PM Modi said.

He also said that the reality of the Congress is now clear in the plight of the Congress-ruled states. "In your neighbourhood, they used every false promise and trick to form a government in Himachal Pradesh. And today, everything has come to a standstill there. There are no businesses, prices are soaring high, no fresh recruitments are being made and even the government employees are not being paid their salaries regularly," he said.

He told the voters that by showing disrespect to the late Jammu and Kashmir's Maharaja Hari Singh, the Congress, the National Conference, and the Peoples Democratic Party are actually insulting the people of the Jammu division.

He appealed to people to cast their votes in favour of the BJP candidates and walked onto the stage to stand alongside the BJP candidates.

With inputs from IANS