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News18.com
Last Updated: March 31, 2024, 18:32 IST
New Delhi, India
Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll campaign for Lok Sabha Election 2024 in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut today (March 31). While addressing a rally there, PM Modi said the BJP government made the impossible possible by building Ram Temple and scrapping Article 370. The prime minister also added that the coming 5 years will be dedicated to the empowerment of women if the BJP is voted to power.
Prime Minister Modi also lashed out at the Congress over the controversial Katchatheevu island that was handed over to Sri Lanka by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974.
ALSO READ: How Katchatheevu Issue is Taking Spotlight Ahead of LS Polls; Why Indira Gandhi Ceded Island to Sri Lanka
This is the first occasion when PM Modi and RLD Chief Jayant Chaudhary shared the stage, a decade after BJP decimated RLD in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. RLD joined the BJP-led NDA in February after the PM announced the Bharat Ratna for former Prime Minister and Jayant’s grandfather Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Meanwhile, Congress on Sunday released a list of its star campaigners for the Lok Sabha Elections. Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Ajay Rai are among its star poll campaigners.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to do “match-fixing” in the Lok Sabha polls and asserted that if the BJP wins the election through this endeavour and changes the Constitution, then the whole country would be “finished”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has lived in poverty and “that is why Modi understands very well the sorrow of every poor, the pain of every poor, the suffering of every poor”.
“So I made schemes to address every concern of the poor. We have not only empowered the poor, but we have also given them back their self-respect,” Modi said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the people have only seen a “trailer” of development and his government was preparing the roadmap for the next five years.
“Our government has already started preparations for the third term. We are making a roadmap for the coming five years. Work is going on rapidly on what major decisions we have to take in the first 100 days. In the last 10 years, you have seen only a trailer of development, now we have to take the country much further,” he said.
The Indian National Congress (INC) on Sunday released a list of its star campaigners. Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Ajay Rai are among its star poll campaigners.
BJP leader Agnimitra Paul on Sunday slammed RS MP Sagarika Ghose’s statements supporting Arvind Kejriwal at the INDIA alliance rally.
“Sagarika Ghose was a journalist and once said that she wouldn’t leave her profession to join politics but she is a TMC leader and MP now. It’s a rule in her party that after joining them one has to support corrupts and criminals,” she said.
On RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s statement at the INDIA Alliance ‘maha rally,’ Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai says, “Tejashwi Yadav has become a symbol of corruption and he is not even getting tired doing scams and corruption. CBI, ED and these types of institutions are independent institutions.”
“He (Tejashwi Yadav) has been in a big position and he is also a leader of RJD, does it mean that he can keep committing corruption, scams, and injustice? keep shielding culprits and the law should not reach out to him? No, the nation’s law does not spare anyone,” Rai said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing an election rally in UP’s Meert said, “I am not just probing the corrupt. I guarantee that whoever has looted the people of my country, I am returning the stolen wealth of my people to them.”
On the Katchatheevu Island, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Today, another anti-national act of Congress has come before the country. Katchatheevu is an island in Tamil Nadu, off the coast of India, between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and this island is extremely important from the perspective of national security. When the country became independent, we had this island, and it was an integral part of India but 4-5 decades ago, Congress said that this Island was of no use and cut off a part of Maa Bharti and separated it from India.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lashed out at the Congress over the controversial Katchatheevu island that was handed over to Sri Lanka by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974. The debate around the Katchatheevu Island is currently hotting up in Tamil Nadu politics and beyond ahead of the Lok Sabha Election. READ MORE
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday cited a media report to assert that new facts reveal that the Congress “callously” gave away Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka.
“New facts revealed how Congress and INDI alliance callously gave away Katchatheevu. Katchatheevu was an integral part of India,” said PM Modi.
On the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir by the NDA government, PM Modi said, “In J&K, abrogation of Article 370 seemed impossible. But, Article 370 has been abrogated and J&K is developing at a rapid pace. This is why, people are going to bless us with 370 seats.”
Addressing a rally in Meerut, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I said this from the ramparts of Red Fort that this is the right time. India’s time has come. Today, modern infrastructure is being built rapidly in India. Today, India is making an unprecedented investment in building infrastructure.’
“Today, new opportunities are being created for the youth in every sector. Today, women’s power in the country is coming forward with new resolutions. Today, India’s credibility is at a new height, the whole world is looking at India with confidence,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally in Meerut said everyone thought it was impossible to construct Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
“This year, Ram Lalla played Holi in Ayodhya,” said PM Modi.
Addressing a public rally in the presence of PM Narendra Modi, and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary said, “Yesterday I accepted the Bharat Ratna award on behalf of my grandfather (Chaudhary Charan Singh) from the President. The true recipients of the respect that came with the award are the farmers, youth, soldiers, and social workers of our country.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed the rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut and called the people of UP his family.
“My family members across the country including Uttar Pradesh have made up their minds to give us a third opportunity to serve the public by voting for BJP-NDA,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was felicitated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ahead of his public rally in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi felicitated ahead of his public rally in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/FnpXP0E1Yn
— ANI (@ANI) March 31, 2024
“Chaudhary Charan Singh Ji got Bharat Ratna yesterday. I would like to thank PM Modi for it. You have honoured the farmers of the country by doing so,” said Yogi Adityanath in Meerut.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Rajasthan on a two-day tour from Sunday. He will be reviewing the preparations made by the BJP to win all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The Home Minister will be attending cluster core committee meetings in Jaipur for Churu, Jhunjhunu, Karauli, Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur Lok Sabha seats. Thereafter he will attend a mega roadshow in Sikar.
On Monday, he will be in Jodhpur to attend another cluster core committee meeting.
The decision of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to hand over the Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka in 1974, is becoming one of the major issues in Tamil Nadu during Lok Sabha elections, with the BJP taking up this in a big way.
The island is located between Neduntheevu in Sri Lanka and Rameswaram in India and has been traditionally used by fishermen of both sides.
Already hundreds of fishermen families of Tamil Nadu are on the streets against the Sri Lankan Navy arresting Tamil fishermen and impounding their costly mechanised fishing boats for reasons like crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and poaching in Sri Lankan waters.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) senior leader and MLA Kadiyam Srihari, along with his daughter Kadiyam Kavya, joined the Congress party here on Sunday.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi welcomed them into the party. The development came two days after the Congress leaders invited the father-daughter duo to join the ruling party. Srihari, a former Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana, made the decision after a meeting with the followers.
Srihari was elected to the Assembly from Station Ghanpur constituency in the recent elections. His daughter was declared BRS candidate for Warangal Lok Sabha seat but on March 28, she announced her decision to opt out of the contest.
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