Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed Andhra Pradesh for being a pioneer in agriculture, science and technology, innovation and several fields.
Conveying his greetings to the new government formed by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at a thanksgiving meet titled ‘Praja Dhanyavada Sabha’ immediately on arrival from Colombo, Mr. Modi reassured the State of all support from the Centre in realising its development endeavour
He sent out a clear message that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had set its sights on A.P. and Tamil Nadu by asking party workers to stay focussed on reaching out to people.
He thanked people of the two States for participating in the electoral process, thus strengthening democracy.
“It does not matter if it yielded results for us or not, it is important for us to remain in the service of people.” He cited coming to power as one of the several ways of serving people, but not the end in itself.
“We have to focus on coming to power, but we also need to build a strong nation, which is of greater importance to us,” he observed.
In the nation’s pursuit to excel, he called on every State to contribute their bit for achieving synergy.
‘India first’
Referring to the party’s ideology of ‘India first’ and its firm belief in karma philosophy, Mr. Modi recalled that an average BJP worker would proudly proclaim ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ even after losing a local body election, but would stay focussed on national development.
“Winning polls comes through winning the hearts of people. Victory is the culmination of a process involving staying in touch with the people, serving, coordinating, convincing and finally mobilising them,” was his tip to cheering party workers.
Striking a local chord, he started his speech by reciting a verse ‘ Vina Venkatesam na natho na nathah, Sada Venkatesam Smarami Smarami ,’ which hails the glory of Sri Venkateswara. Similarly, he ended his address by announcing it was time to fall at the holy feet of the Lord.
Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishen Reddy, State party president Kanna Lakshminarayana, senior leaders Sunil Deodhar, G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, D. Purandeswari, K. Lakshman, Somu Veerraju, G. Bhanuprakash Reddy and Kola Anand took part.
