Satara, no longer a Cong-NCP bastion, says Modi
Satara, no longer a Cong-NCP bastion, says Modi
Satara, no longer a Cong-NCP bastion, says Modi
SATARA: The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) suffered a bitter defeat in the Lok Sabha elections because they did not understand the mood of the people. They will face a similar fate in the assembly elections in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Friday.
He was addressing a mammoth rally here while wearing the headgear of a Maratha warrior, in support of the BJP’s newly inducted leader from the NCP, former MP Udayanraje Bhosale, and other candidates from Satara. Voting for the Satara Lok Sabha bypoll and the state Assembly are on October 21.
Praising former NCP MP Udyanraje and his cousin, Shivendraraje Bhosale, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, Modi attacked NCP president Sharad Pawar and senior Congressman Prithviraj Chavan. He said the descendants of Chhatarpati Shivaji were now with the BJP, when previously, the BJP had to be content with celebrating just Shivaji’s ideology. “But now, his entire family is with us,” he said.
In his attack on the Congress, NCP leaders, he said, “Earlier, Satara district was the base of the Congress and the NCP, but now they are not even getting a candidate for the Lok Sabha bypolls.” The ground reality in the district had changed and Satara is no longer with them, Modi said.
Responding to the PM’s view regarding Congress-NCP candidates in Satara, Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil said, “The candidate given by the NCP from Satara, Mr Shriniwas Patil, is a two-time MP and an ex-bureaucrat. Let me also remind Modiji that he was one of the few governors whom his government did not remove after coming to power in 2014. So, that means he has some standing. If such a candidate is weak, it is a big joke.”
Drawing attention to Chatrapati Shivaji‘s military strategy and his decision to establish a navy, Modi said, he too had given the highest priority to nationalism and national security. “We have strengthened our army and air force. We have even achieved progress in space. However, the opposition parties are criticising us on national issues,” he said.
The prime minister heaped praise on Satara as “the land of warriors” and said that entire villages from Satara had given soldiers to the nation. The opposition parties were insulting these soldiers by raising questions over the Rafael combat aircraft and abrogoation of article 370, he said.
(With inputs from Aurangzeb Naqshbandi)
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