Congress party era will end in 2014, says Indian PM Modi

Tuesday, 14 October 2014 02:13 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Ahead of the final day of campaigning in the poll-bound western state of Maharashtra, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the year 2014 is the last year for the Congress party and the end of its era has begun.

Modi was addressing an election rally in the temple town of Pandharpur in Maharashtra on Sunday. “The year 2014 is the last year of the Congress party. The end of the era of Congress and its allies has started,” he said. Maharashtra will provide the best test of how well Modi’s appeal is holding up, five months after he stormed to power in a general election with promises to mend a country battered by corruption scandals, high inflation, and sharply slowing growth. Modi has campaigned personally in Maharashtra, betting he can help his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win big in a state with a population of 110 million spread across an area the size of Italy. Local polls predict the BJP will win, but perhaps only with a narrow margin. The Congress party in alliance with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was in power in Maharashtra for the last 15 years. The Congress faces defeat on the same anti-incumbency wave that toppled it from power in the general election but retains pockets of support in the state. Meanwhile, Modi also attacked the Congress-NCP alliance and said that they destroyed the state and in the process looted the pockets of citizens. “Maharashtra, in the last 10-15 years, has destroyed Maharashtra. Your pockets have been looted,” said Modi. The BJP surprised analysts by breaking off a decades-old alliance with Shiv Sena, a right-wing regional party popular among the region’s Marathi people that is now expected to provide formidable competition. Modi said that if BJP with its alliance partners forms the government in the state then it will be given all the support from the federal government. “I want to assure you that to remove the sorrows of Maharashtra, to change the lives of the farmer, the federal government of Bharatiya Janata Party will fully support the state government of BJP in whatever decisions it takes,” Modi added. A big win in Maharashtra could make it easier to forge ahead on reforms in the run-up to the annual budget next February. The last day of campaigning is tomorrow and the elections are scheduled to take place on 15 October. Counting of votes will take place on 19 October.