PM Modi with Chief of Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF) Hagrama Mohilary during a public meeting ahead in Assam' Kokrajhar today. (PTI photo)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a blistering attack on the Congress over its 15-year rule in Assam, and said he agreed with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assessment that only 15 paise of every rupee sent in Central aid reached the place it was meant to.
"We cannot allow it," the PM said after quoting the former Prime Minister and Congress leader and added, "Delhi now asks state governments for accounts. They have to account for every rupee spent. Looting of people's money has to stop."
The Prime Minister's speeches at rallies today in Assam, where assembly elections are due by April this year, launched his party's campaign in the state. PM Modi accused the Congress of neglecting development in the state despite having ruled for a number of years both at the Centre and the state together, and also attacked his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh, pointing out that he represents the state in the Rajya Sabha.
Why does Assam have so many problems when the same government is there for 15 years and the state has sent a Prime Minister for ten years...They could not do anything in 15 years and now they want me to solve all their problems within 15 months. Don't you think it's unfair to me," PM Modi said.
This morning, the Assam Congress issued full-page ads in local newspapers with 10 questions for PM Modi on Central projects and aid for Assam.
The PM launched the BJP's election campaign by announcing initiatives, including tribal status for two communities that have been demanding it for some time. He has also announced that a central technical institute located in Kokrajhar would be given the status of a deemed university and extended the Sealdah Guwahati Kanchenjunga Express up to the Barak Valley.
He addressed a rally in Kokrajhar in lower Assam organised jointly by the BJP and its first pre-election ally in Assam the Bodoland People's Front or BPF and promised that the BJP would ensure all-round development of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) areas which, he said, had been "betrayed" by Congress.
"There is a long list of problems. There has been no development," he said at the rally. "They are just trying to confuse the people. You compare their 15-year rule and my 15-month-old government. You will see the vast difference," he said.