Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday criticized the Opposition unity meeting being held in Bengaluru and accused leaders of being capable of guaranteeing widespread scams and corruption.
He made these remarks while inaugurating the terminal building at Veer Savarkar International Airport at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands via video conferencing.
He took a swipe at the Opposition and said people of the country have already decided to bring the NDA back in 2024.
"So, people who are responsible for the plight of India have opened their shops... 24 ke liye 26 hone waale rajnaitik dalon par ye bada fit baith'ta hai. They are singing some other song but the reality is something else. A label of something else has been put up but the product is soeone else's. There is a guarantee of the poison of casteism and immense corruption at their shops. Now, they are in Bengaluru...,” he said.
The Prime minister said those who gathered at the opposition meeting remain silent when asked about their corruption charges, “they have scams of crores of rupees on their head.”
A total of 26 opposition parties have gathered as a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the Parliamentary general elections (Lok Sabha) in 2024.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, , Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers M K Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren and RJD chief Lalu Prasad are attending the meet.
The BJP, on the other hand, is holding a meeting of 38 parties of the National Democratic Alliance or NDA in the national capital on Tuesday.
The NDA meeting will be chaired by Modi. The meeting of NDA is being organised to mark the completion of nine years of the central government under Modi.
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that Congress was not interested in either power or the prime ministerial post.
He said while addressing the meeting: “We’re aware of differences between some of us at state level; these are not ideological” and that they were not so great that they couldn’t be put aside for the “sake of the people”.
“BJP president (J P Nadda) and party leaders are running from state to state to patch up with old allies,” he added.