Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the Uttar Pradesh elections are a fight between the dynasts and diehard nationalists, which the opposition parties do not understand.
"Dynasts want the money in their lockers, constitution in their pocket and poor at their feet," he said.
Addressing his second election rally of the day in Deoria, Modi attacked previous governments in Uttar Pradesh, saying they shut sugar mills and didn’t clear dues of sugarcane farmers.
Whereas the Yogi Adityanath government modernised sugar mills and facilitated ethanol blending, which fetched about Rs 12,000 crore for the state, the PM said.
The Assembly constituencies in Deoria district will go to the polls in the sixth phase of the elections on March 3.
Continuing with his tirade against the opposition parties, he said, "The previous governments focused on foreign products for their cut and commission. They made our armies dependent on foreign companies and destroyed the defence industry. But we are now making a defence corridor in Uttar Pradesh."
Talking about crude oil, he said that India doesn't have wells of oil and imports crude oil in large amounts.
"The previous governments didn't focus on ethanol as fuel that can be produced from sugarcane. We are developing infrastructure to produce ethanol and biogas from cattle dung. We are also trying to become self-reliant in edible oils. For this the government is buying oil seeds from farmers."
In an apparent dig at the Samajwadi Party, Modi said that they were with a party in 2017 and another party in 2019 and added "those who cannot stay with their friends can never stand with the people of the state".
The SP had an alliance with the Congress in 2017 assembly polls and the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2019 parliamentary elections.
For 2022 state polls it has entered into alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal and a string of caste-based regional parties.
Without taking names, the prime minister alleged that the dynasts usurped crores of money which could have been used to build schools and bring development in the state.
Addressing an election rally in Basti in Uttar Pradesh, Modi pointed to the turmoil prevailing in the world and pitched for strengthening the country by making it "atmanirbhar" (self-reliant).
He also targeted his political opponents for making the country "nirbhar" (dependent) on foreign countries earlier for defence items.
