BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has on Saturday hit out at the Left Front government of Tripura for encouraging penetration of Bangladeshis and creating adversities for the state. He said presence of infiltrators is a major cause for rising unemployment in the region as the they work even for half wages.
Mr Modi said Tripura shares boundary with Bangladesh and similarly Gujarat does with Pakistan. "Here the state government is troubled due to Bangladesh, but the entire Pakistan is distressed for my stance in Gujarat," he stated.
Addressing a not so big rally at Swami Vivekananda stadium in Agartala - third in northeast India on the day - he mostly spoke against the attempts to raise third front eyeing on ensuing Lok Sabha elections. "It (third front) takes birth only during polls and has the lifetime of 150 days before it vanishes," he said.
He questioned where were the third front people when the country faced so many problems, and why they were silent on issues of national and social interest. He also mocked third front initiators as Siberian birds.
"Thousands of birds from Siberia come to Gujarat every winter and fly back at end of winter. Third front leaders are like them," Narendra Modi took a dig.
He said people have voted communists to power many times in Tripura, but got nothing. He compared: "I have been in power for three terms and made Gujarat shining in the world".
"Here for even a BPL card you have to go to their (left) party office. You cannot live your life without becoming their slave - this is the miserable condition of people of this state".
Mr Modi began his speech attributing initiative of regent queen Kanchanprabha Devi to merge erstwhile princely state with Indian union. It was Sardar Patel who facilitated the merger and prevented 'an imminent taking over of Tripura by Pakistan', he added.
He lambasted 60 years governance of Congress for all backwardness in northeast India. For him it was Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who paved progress, development and integration in northeast India.
BJP's national vice president S.S. Ahluwalia and senior leader Vijoy Joli also spoke at the rally.
