Making roadmap for next five years, says PM at Meerut rally

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Sunday that people have only seen a "trailer" of development and said his government was preparing the roadmap for next five years. Addressing his first rally in Uttar Pradesh after the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule, Modi said the 2024 Lok Sabha election is not just for making a government, but making a 'Viksit Bharat'.

He described Meerut as a land of "revolution and revolutionaries" that gave leaders like Chaudhary Charan Singh to the nation.

"Our government has already started preparations for the third term. We are making a roadmap for the coming five years. Work is going on rapidly on what major decisions we have to take in the first 100 days. "In the last 10 years, you have seen only a trailer of development, now we have to take the country much farther," he said.

The prime minister said he has lived in poverty and "that is why Modi understands very well the sorrow of every poor, the pain of every poor, the suffering of every poor". "So I made schemes to address every concern of the poor. We have not only empowered the poor, but we have also given them back their self-respect," Modi said.

Rashtriya Lok Dal president Jayant Chaudhary, who recently joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, shared the dais with the prime minister at the rally.

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, his Haryana counterpart Naib Singh Saini along with veteran actor Arun Govil of TV serial 'Ramayan' fame, who is the BJP candidate in the Meerut Lok Sabha seat, too participated in the rally.

Ahead of his first Lok Sabha election rally in Uttar Pradesh, the Prime Minister referred to the people of the country as his family members and said his government has given a new flight to their aspirations.

In a post on X in Hindi, PM Modi said, "In the last 10 years, our government, through its work, has given a new flight to the aspirations of my family members across the country. To give further speed to this, the countrymen have once again made up their mind to go with the BJP-NDA in the Lok Sabha elections."

Prime Minister Modi routinely refers to the people of the country as his family members.

Around 15.34 crore people are eligible to vote in Uttar Pradesh -- a politically crucial state with 80 Lok Sabha seats where elections will be held in seven phases from April 19. Meerut will go to polls in the second phase on April 26.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 62 seats and its ally Apna Dal (S) two seats. The Congress won the Rae Bareli seat of Sonia Gandhi. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which fought the elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, was the biggest gainer in the alliance with 10 seats. Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party won five seats while the Rashtriya Lok Dal couldn't open its account in the polls.