For some parties, family is the party: PM Modi

Hours after Priyanka Gandhi was formally ushered into active politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a veiled dig at the Congress party saying "for some parties, the family is the party".

Contrasting it with his party, Prime Minister Modi said: "For the BJP, the party is the family".

Priyanka, the 47-year-old daughter of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and sister of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, will take charge of her responsibility from February first week. She will be working in the capacity of General Secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh East, the party announced on Wednesday.

While addressing party workers from Maharashtra's Baramati, Gadchiroli, Hingoli, Nanded and Nandurbar through video conferencing, the Prime Minister also hit out at the West Bengal government stating that the Mamata Banerjee-led government is scared of conducting free and fair elections as they fear defeat.

He said, "The West Bengal government does not want polls to be conducted in a free and fair democratic manner as they fear they will be defeated. They have chosen to take the path of autocracy while we are committed to democracy."

Asserting that the BJP is a party which has always been in the front for protecting the democracy, he added: "Our workers fight only for the welfare of the people".

Furthermore, the Prime Minister lauded the efforts of the central government as he asserted that Naxalism has now taken a back seat and development is going on in full swing.

"Today development has taken over naxalism. We have not only given them (naxals) a befitting reply but have also failed their intention of depriving people of development," said the Prime Minister

Moreover, he also informed that the district affected by naxals has declined from 126 to 90.

"Incidents of naxal attack have reduced in the past four-and-half years. Now, the district affected by naxals has gone down to 90 as compared to 126 earlier," he added.