Playing on Hindi semantics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took a dig at a possible stitching of mahagathbandhan of parties to oppose BJP, saying where there was ‘dal, dal’ (parties when read separately, marsh when read together in Hindi), lotus bloomed. Lotus is the election symbol of the BJP.
 
He was speaking in Shahjahanpur as he addressed a ‘Kisan Kalyan Rally’. This was PM Modi’s first public rally after Friday’s No-Confidence Motion in Lok Sabha.
 
PM Modi also attacked the much-talked about hug that Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave him during the No-Confidence Motion in Parliament on Friday. He said that while he asked for the reason for the motion, what he got instead was an “unwanted hug”.
 
“We asked the reasons for their no confidence, but when they failed to give any, who gale pad gaye (they ended up giving an unwanted hug),” Modi said.
Making a pitch for the votes of the farming community, Modi said, “There is not just one 'dal' (political party) but dal over dal resulting in “dal-dal” (marshy land) which will only help the lotus bloom.’
 
Slamming Opposition, PM Modi said they were running after the prime minister’s chair, ignoring the poor, youth and farmers.
 
“Are you people satisfied with what happened yesterday in Lok Sabha. Have you come to know who is at fault. They are not seeing the poor and the country but have their eyes only on the PM's chair,” he said.
 
“Have I done anything wrong. I am only working for the poor and the country. Fighting corruption and this is my crime,” he said.
 
Accusing previous governments of not having the will to help farmers, Modi listed key decisions taken by his government for welfare of farmers and criticised the parties who ruled in the past for lacking pro-farmer intentions.
 
“Those who are shedding Crocodile’s tears in the name of farmers. Previous governments too had the chance to do this for you, but they did not have the time for farmers, they did not think about it,” Modi said. “For our government at the Centre and our government in the state, farmers, villages of India are top priority.”
 
“The decades old nexus that previous governments had perpetuated, we are trying to break them altogether.”
 
After reaching out to farmers in Azamgarh, Mirzapur and Varanasi last week, Modi addressed the peasants in Shahjahanpur in western UP, the biggest wholesale grain market and also a prominent sugarcane growing district in Uttar Pradesh.
 
This was PM’s third visit to the state in less than a month. Farmers in large numbers from adjoining districts such as Hardoi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Sitapur, Bareilly and Badaun attended the rally.