Army men to farmers, Modi woos all in Punjab

From the drug menace to wooing farmers and army men, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi touched almost every issue while addressing his rally in Jagraon, 46 kilometres from Ludhiana, on Sunday.

From the drug menace to wooing farmers and army men, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi touched almost every issue while addressing his rally in Jagraon, 46 kilometres from Ludhiana, on Sunday.

To woo voters in the state, the Gujarat chief minister said Sikh farmers in Gujarat's Kutch town, over whom the Congress has accused the Gujarat government of being "anti-Sikh", would not be forced to leave the state. Modi, addressing his first rally in the state after being named the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, attacked the Congress, while at the same time praised Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for championing the farmers' cause and said that he had learnt a lot from leaders like him.

He also raked up the "one rank, one pension" issue, claiming that the Centre was playing with the emotions of servicemen. On the drug menace, he said there was a need to stop the smuggling of drugs from across the border.

He went on to underline the "three pillars that the country must focus on: Agriculture, manufacturing and the service sector", saying that these were the need of the hour On his plans if elected as the Prime Minister (PM), he said he would sit like a watchman in Delhi, not like a PM.

He said the Shiromani Akali Dal government had been elected for the second consecutive term in Punjab, which showed that the people had reposed their faith in the Badals' style of governance. Hitting back at the Congress for terming him a communal leader, Modi said the SAD- BJP combine promoted unity and that was something the Congress could not tolerate.