‘INDI’ leaders weigh vote bank even when wishing me death: PM

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, May 10

PM Narendra Modi on Friday renewed his assault on the opposition rivals, saying even when making a death wish for him, “INDI bloc leaders weigh vote bank politics”.

‘Join hands with Ajit, Shinde’

Fake NCP & Shiv Sena have made up their mind to merge with Cong. Instead of dying by merging with Cong, they should come to Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde. — Narendra Modi, Prime minister

“They say they will dig my grave, they say they will bury me alive. Even when wishing me death, they remember to appease their vote banks but let me tell them they cannot bury me — not when I am alive, not when I am gone,” said Modi speaking in north Maharashtra’s Nandurbar. He was responding to a recent remark by Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena UBT.

Taking further swipes at NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT), the PM said after the polling in Baramati in the third phase, a senior opposition leader of Maharashtra was very worried. Without naming Pawar whose daughter Supriya Sule, a three-term MP, ran from Baramati for the fourth time on May 7, Modi said: “A senior leader here who has been active in politics for 40-50 years is worried after polling in Baramati. He says after June 4, smaller parties, to survive, will merge with the Congress… This means the fake NCP and the fake Shiv Sena have made up their minds to merge with the Congress. But instead of dying by merging with the Congress, they should come to Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde,” Modi said.

The PM attacked the Congress and allies for what he termed as “anti-Hindu and anti-national thoughts”.

“Even when I go to the temple, the Congress calls it anti-India. Look at the mindset of the Congress. They call the Ram temple in Ram’s own country anti-national. Those who hosted government-sponsored iftar for appeasement, those who beautified the graves of terrorists, they call me anti-national for going to my Ram temple. The INDI alliance is attacking not me, but your faith. The Congress is conspiring to erase Hindu faith from the country,” the PM said.

He went all guns blazing after “fake Shiv Sena”, saying: “I often wonder how anguished Balasaheb Thackeray would be today to see his legatees taking people accused in bomb blasts cases for campaigns,” the PM said in a caustic attack on opposition INDIA leaders in Maharashtra.

Nandurbar is an ST reserved constituency and part of Dhule district. The segment has seven Assembly seats of which BJP holds three, Congress two and Independents the rest.

Two-term BJP MP from the seat Heena Gavit is running again from the segment. Historically, Nandurbar was a Congress bastion from 1952 until 2014 when Heena Gavit, a medical graduate, breached it for the BJP, ending 62-year Congress dominance of the tribal seat. Nandurbar will vote in the fourth phase on May 13.