Fresh from Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) landslide win in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand after a bitter and often divisive campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday talked about inclusivity and pitched for building a ‘new India’ by 2022 that would have made the nation’s founding fathers proud.

Accepting felicitations from party leaders and supporters at BJP headquarters, Modi said he saw the election results, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, as the “foundation of the new India”.

“I see this victory as the foundation of a new India where 65 per cent of the population will be of young people below 35 years of age. a new India of unprecedently vigilant women.

“A new India where the poor do not want anything by way of charity, but seek opportunity to chart out their own course. I see this change happening,” he told the gathering which lapped up every word he said, amid repeated chants of ‘Modi! Modi! Modi!’

Earlier in the day, Modi tweeted, “India is emerging, which is being powered by the strength & skills of 125 crore [1.25 billion] Indians. This India stands for development.”

Modi, whose ‘crematorium and graveyard’ remark at an election rally in UP was seen as intended to polarise voters along communal lines, in a statement on his website Narendramodi.in said,” India is transforming, powered by the strength of each and every citizen of India.

“An India that is driven by innovation, hard work and creativity; an India characterised by peace, unity and brotherhood; and an India free from corruption, terrorism, black money and dirt.”

The theme of development ran through his felicitation speech too.

These elections must be evaluated as people have voted heavily despite the absence of any emotional issue. The poor have voted in large numbers on the topic of development, he said.“Beyond the emotive issues, political parties fought shy of going to elections on the issue of development. Development is a difficult subject. In these elections, there was a lack of emotive issues, but the huge voter turnout after the campaign based on development shows the transition that his happening towards creation of a new India,” he said.

Modi, who was accused by his rivals of playing caste and religion politics during the campaign, said the BJP-led dispensation will take everybody along as “in democracy governments are formed with a majority but run with consensus”.

Noting that the government has no right to discriminate against anybody, Modi said, “This government is of those who have voted for it and also those who have not. Of those who have walked along, and also of those who have not.”

“Everybody will join in the making of a new India,” he said.

Describing the victory in the just-concluded Assembly polls as greater than the one in the 2014 general elections, BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday said the party “will get a bigger mandate” in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Terming the massive win in Uttar Pradesh as approval of the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government’s pro-poor policies, Shah said the party’s victory march will continue in upcoming polls in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat as well the eastern and southern parts of the country.

He was addressing party workers at BJP headquarters here ahead of felicitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the victory in the Assembly elections in UP and Uttarakhand.

“The results of these five states will take the party forward from its historic win in 2014 general elections,” Shah said adding that the party’s victory especially in Uttar Pradesh is unprecedented.

Stating that people have expressed complete faith in Modi’s leadership, Shah said, “The win in the five state assembly elections is bigger than our victory in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. We will get a bigger mandate in 2019,” Shah said.

Shah along with other senior party leaders felicitated Modi for the party’s performance in the five state Assembly polls.

Attributing the victory to demonetisation, the BJP President said with the note-ban move the poor have come closer to the Modi government.

Exuding confidence, Shah said, “This victory march of BJP will now reach Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and will further enter the eastern and southern parts of the country”

Source: GULF NEWS