Polling so far has already decided UPA’s exit: Modi

In his first campaign speech in Gujarat at Surendranagar in the Saurashtra region on Wednesday, the Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate said that the huge turnout of voters witnessed in different states till date was like a tsunami and meant that people had laid the foundation for a new government at the centre.

“Such a big turnout has never been noticed in the history of Indian elections. During the emergency, anger was high, but such a big turnout was not witnessed”, he said and added that those who were yet to exercise their franchise during the remaining April 30- May 12 period would have to vote to install a strong government.

Modi said that people of Gujarat had consistently given a two-thirds majority to the BJP which, he said, now wanted a strong government in Delhi.

“Just departure of the Congress is not our goal. Our fight is not just for sitting on the throne. We want 300 lotuses in parliament. And Gujarat has to lead in taking this responsibility”, he said triggering a thunderous applause.

Blaming the ‘anti-Gujarat’ government in New Delhi for inordinate delay in completing the ambitious Narmada project, he cited Gujarati proverbs to hint to the audience that Gujarat would be the biggest beneficiary once there was a BJP government at the centre.

He said the centre had failed to solve farmers’ problems and praised the Vajpayee administration fro good roads in rural Gujarat.

“Now it’s our dream that the new government will bring irrigation water to villages through a nationwide irrigation network. Another task to be performed is river linking. Imagine, transfer of access water available in eastern side of India to western side.”, said Modi, who made Congress-held Surendranagar constituency the first stop of his whirlwind campaign tour in his home State. He is also set to address rallies in Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha later in the day.

On Thursday, after filing his nomination papers from Varanasi, Modi will fly to Vadodara to address a public rally, the first after he filed his nomination papers in Gujarat’s cultural capital on April 9.

Earlier in the day, he addressed a rally in Kalol, part of Gandhinagar, from where senior BJP leader L K Advani is contesting, saying the latter had led a blemish-free political life, and vowed to offer clean government at the centre. Modi, who was hitherto absent from the poll scene in Gujarat, plans to campaign in Congress strongholds in the state where the BJP has claimed to win all the 26 Lok Sabha seats.

• India