Making a direct appeal to young voters, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, said here on Monday that youngsters should not only vote but also come out to campaign for a strong government in Delhi.
“Don’t just be voters, but be canvassers. Go to each house and lane, ask them to vote for a strong government in Delhi. That is for your own future,” he appealed to youth in the 18-28 age group.
Addressing a rally in Bandra-Kurla Complex, the same venue where Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had spoken on Sunday, he said a Congress government would put their future in the dark.
Claiming that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government provided over 6.5 crore jobs in six years, Mr. Modi said two successive United Progressive Alliance governments could not produce even one crore jobs in the past 10 years.
“Show me a single person who was given a job by the UPA,” he said.
Attacking Mr. Gandhi for his “statement” that poverty was only a state of mind, Mr. Modi said that those born with a silver spoon in their mouth would never understand poverty.
“For Rahul bhaiya , poverty is a tourism destination. He goes to see the poor and even finishes off their food. He speaks about poverty for fun,” he said.
Mr. Modi said the Congress would not even touch the double-digit mark in number of seats in many States, and would not even open its account at many places.
“We talk of development issues and they [the Congress] talk of secularism. It just means that they have no answer to the questions I am raising,” he said.