Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate addressed an election rally in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
A day after Rahul Gandhi wooed the Bundelkhand region,
Narendra Modi hit the campaign trail there, in a different town and different state. His pitch, "Don't make me Prime Minister. Make me a chowkidaar (watchman). I will guard the national treasury."
He also proposed, "You have given the Congress 60 years, give us just 60 months."
The BJP's prime ministerial candidate addressed an election rally in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday accusing the Samajwadi Party, which rules Uttar Pradesh, and the Congress of looting the people.
He referred to a big financial package that the Centre had given for the drought-hit region and said, "They said they'll build check dams, dig wells, do you see any of that work done? The package was for their pockets." (
Read highlights of speech)
The Bundelkhand package, Mr Modi pointed out, was divided between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh - the two states that the region spans - and said, "I can say with pride that my party's Shivraj Chouhan, has spent every paisa from that allotment."
Yesterday, Rahul Gandhi, while campaigning in Sagar in election-bound Madhya Pradesh, had given credit for the Rs 3000-crore package to the government his party, the Congress, leads at the Centre, and accused the BJP government in that state of neglecting the Bundelkhand region.
Soon after, Mr Chouhan had tweeted, "When congress says 'they' sent 3000 Cr to Bundelkhand, isn't it strange that they believe tax payers' money is their own?"
Today's Jhansi rally was the second of nine that Narendra Modi will address in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. Uttar Pradesh sends a whopping 80 MPs to the 545-seat Lok Sabha and so has traditionally played an important role in government formation at the Centre.
The BJP currently has only 10 MPs from Uttar Pradesh and for Mr Modi to get close to his Delhi dream, his party will have to perform considerably better in the 2014 general elections.
Mr Modi said Uttar Pradesh had been destroyed by the "trinity of SABKA" - an acronym he coined for the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, and the Congress. (
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The Congress, he said, had ruined Uttar Pradesh with corruption and the Samajwadi Party with dynastic politics, while Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party is mired in the cult of her personality.
The BJP had been placed fourth in Uttar Pradesh after those three parties in the 2009 general elections.