Gujarat Assembly elections: Save Gujarat, country from Congress and like-minded parties which go soft on terrorists to protect vote bank, says PM Modi

Leading the BJP’s campaign ahead of voting for the Gujarat Assembly polls, the Prime Minister has picked the opposition Congress as the main target of his speeches in rallies and roadshows across the State

After playing the ‘son of the soil’ card and slamming Congress leaders for “calling names”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday targeted the Congress party again over terrorism and said the party “goes soft on terrorism to save its vote bank”. 

Campaigning in his home State Gujarat ahead of voting for the Assembly polls, the Prime Minister accused the Congress of targeting him during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government instead of targeting terrorists who had “struck at will” when the party was in power at Centre. 

He also recalled the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike and Batla House encounter in which terrorists were gunned down by the Delhi Police, and said that it was important to “save Gujarat and the country from Congress and like-minded parties which go soft on terrorists to protect their vote bank”. 

He claimed that “several Congress leaders cried” when terrorists were killed in the Batla House police encounter in the national capital. 

“Congress views terrorism from the prism of vote bank. Not only Congress but many like-minded parties have come up now who view terrorism as a short cut to achieve success and this small party’s hunger for power is even bigger,” he said, apparently referring to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a new entrant in the State’s politics. 

It appears that without naming the AAP, the Prime Minister had possibly alluded to its stance in Punjab, where it’s allegedly “soft” towards certain “pro-Khalistan elements”. 

He added that the Congress and such like-minded parties did not “open their mouth” when big terrorist attacks took place “so that their vote bank is not offended; they even go to courts from the back door to save terrorists”.