Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke exclusively to India TV ahead of single-phase voting in Uttarakhand on February 14. He fired shots at the Congress party saying it was former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who gave Uttarakhand statehood while the Congress was opposing it.
In an exclusive interview with India TV, PM Modi said "Vajpayee government gave statehood to Uttarakhand. Prior to that people did a lot of struggle for statehood. Congress government had ordered the killing of innocent people. Women were tortured."
PM Modi was referring to the Rampur-Tiraha firing case of October 1994 where the state police had opened fire on Uttarakhand statehood activists. Many activists were killed in the incident.
"Vajpayee agreed to demands in a very peaceful manner. After two decades since Uttarakhand attained statehood, the state is now ready for take-off. If Uttarakhand has a stable government for 10 years, then the state can achieve new heights in the path of development," PM added.
Uttarakhand, which used to be a part of Uttar Pradesh, came into being on November 9, 2000, through the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000. Vajpayee-led NDA-1 was in power at the Centre at that time.
The high-pitched electoral campaign reached a crescendo on the concluding day of electioneering on Saturday for single-phase polls in Goa and Uttarakhand and for the second phase of seven-phase assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
In Uttarakhand, star campaigners of all political parties’ held public rallies for all 70 assembly seats in the state. Addressing a rally in poll-bound Uttarakhand at Rudrapur on the last day of campaigning in the state, PM asked voters to see these elections as an opportunity to wipe out the Congress which, he said, has already been rejected in a majority of states in the country.
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