Congress' focus on vote bank politics, not development: Modi

Accusing the Congress of being busy with vote bank politics, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Friday said if the party had followed the development agenda, things would have been much different in the country.

"It is not that development cannot happen. But except vote bank politics, Congress does not want to do anything," Modi said at an election rally at Rajasthan's Pokhran, some 470 km from Jaipur, two days before the state goes to assembly polls on Dec 1.

He claimed the Congress thinks of dividing and ruling the nation, while his party's focus is on keeping it united.

"Todna Congress ka swabhav hai, jodna humara swabhav hai. Unki sooch hai todo aur raaj karo, humari soch hai jodo aur vikas karo (dividing people is in the Congress's nature, while our nature is to unite people. They think of divide and rule, we focus on unity and development)," he asserted.

Modi spoke for over 35 minutes to an estimated crowd of between 60,000-70,000, which was waiting to hear him for the last 2-3 hours at a stadium here.

The rally was marked by cheering and waving of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) flags by the supporters, some of whom were also holding masks of Modi in their hands.

The crowd also chanted slogans in favour of the party and Modi.

Modi said he wants the nation to be free of the Congress and fulfill Mahatma Gandhi's dreams.

Referring to the state's Ashok Gehlot government, he charged it with not caring or being concerned about people.

Taking a dig at missing coal ministry files, Modi said it has become fashionable for the Congress to say files are lost.

"The truth is not only files but also the entire government is lost," he said.

He appreciated the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's decision to conduct nuclear tests in Pokhran.

"Entire world knows Pokhran. Vajpayee-ji's government conducted tests here. World saw India's strength. If we had a weak PM, he or she would have got scared the same day. The world put sanctions on us. The situation was that India was on one side and the world on the other one," Modi recalled.

"But there was Atalji. World put sanctions but he did not get scared and in two days again in Pokhran, there were tests and we showed the world that we are not going to bow down to anyone. We will not be scared," he said.

Attacking the Congress, Modi said the party says the land of poor is snatched and they have made a law against this.

"I want to ask people of Jaisalmer, who took acres and acres of your land? When a thief is at home, where can you complain? A government under Vasundhara Raje will be formed in Rajasthan and in 200 days a BJP government will be formed in Delhi too."

"I assure you, every inch of your land will be returned, once we are in power," he said.

Reaching out to Muslims, the Gujarat chief minister said that in his state, two districts - Kutch and Bharuch, both with large Muslim populations, are now the fastest growing districts.

Pokhran, which comes in Jaisalmer district, has a big population of Muslims too.

Polling for a new 200-member Rajasthan assembly is scheduled for Dec 1. The counting of ballots will take place Dec 8.