Modi blames PM for Assam's lack of growth

BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Saturday attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, for not doing anything for the state and the northeastern region.

Addressing a rally here, Modi said that Assam had not received anything despite electing Manmohan Singh to the upper house for over last 20 years.

"If an ordinary worker from Assam would have represented the state for so many years, he could have changed the face of the state, but Manmohan Singh failed to do so," he said, asking that if the prime minister had failed to do anything for the state, what he would do for the nation?

"You have given 60 years to the Congress -- they only made promises and misguided the country. Give me just 60 months, I will fulfil your aspirations," Modi told the people.

Taking a dig at Congress' dynasty politics, he said the party is busy worshipping one family and never recognized the contribution of other leaders in the party.

"Congress leaders often ask me why I am building statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River.... I tell them Patel is not the Congress leader but leader of the country," said the Gujarat chief minister.

Modi said the Congress had forgotten Assam's first chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi, who along with Sardar Patel saved Assam from being merged with Pakistan.

"If the Congress has not recognized the contribution of Patel who gave united India, how will they recognize the contribution of Bordoloi?" he asked.

Stressing his connection with tea-growing Assam, Modi said: "Assam energises millions of people in India every day with her tea, the beverage that once I made for a living. But the same state is one of India's most impoverished, marred by violence and underdevelopement."

Earlier in the day, Modi, addressing another rally in Imphal, said it was due to the lack of development in the region that its people could not take part in the nation's development.