Congress fear-mongering over Pak, cannot win even 50 seats, says PM

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, May 11

Ahead of the commencement of poll cycle in Odisha, a key battleground state in eastern India, from May 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday predicted a clean sweep for the ruling NDA at the Centre and said principal rival Congress would not even win 50 segments.

Citing the 26th anniversary of Shakti series of nuclear tests at Pokhran under late predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee, the PM attacked the Congress for “constantly fear mongering flagging Pakistan’s atom bomb.”

“It is because of the weak heartedness of the Congress over all these decades that the country endured terror attacks. They did not have the courage to act against perpetrators of Mumbai terror attacks out of the fear of upsetting their vote banks while the BJP, under AB Vajpayee, demonstrated national strength 26 years ago in Pokhran,” Modi said addressing rallies in Kandhamal, Bolangir and Bargarh in Odisha.

In the same breath as he targeted the Congress, PM Modi dared state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, India’s longest serving CM, to name Odisha’s districts without the help of written notes.

The PM’s twin attack — on the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress — signals BJP’s electoral expansion plans in Odisha where saffron forces won eight of the 21 LS seats in 2019 while BJD won 12 and Congress 1. For the BJP, it was a gain of seven seats over just one in 2014.

This time, Odisha is key to the saffron target of 400-plus seats for the NDA as BJP had hit saturation across most north and central Indian states in 2019.

“Mark my words. The Congress will not even win 50 seats and will not be able to secure 10 per cent seats needed in Lok Sabha to get recognition for Leader of Opposition position. The Congress prince has been parroting the same jaded script since 2014 poll… NDA will break all records this time, winning over 400 seats,” Modi said.

In major remarks against Patnaik, the Prime Minister said, “How can a CM, who has no knowledge of the districts of his state, understand the anxieties of his people?”

Modi said he was in Odisha to invite people to the swearing-in ceremony of a BJP Chief Minister in Bhubaneswar on June 10.

TOUCHES FEET OF PADMA WINNER

Before his rally in Kandhamal, PM on Saturday touched the feet of Padma awardee Puranmasi Jani, an octogenarian poet from the district’s Khajuripada area. Jani never attended school but recites poems in the local Kui language