Muslims also voted for us in Kathlal: Narendra Modi

Chief minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday evening that that Muslims had also voted for the BJP in the recently held by-polls to Kathlal assembly seat. He was addressing a rally at Khanpur after the party's victory in the six civic polls.

"We had never won the seat in more than 50 years, but managed to break the jinx this time, as voters approved the politics of development," Modi said.

Modi described as unprecedented the result of the civic elections in which the BJP won 80% of the seats while all the other parities and independents combined had won only 20% seats.

Modi spoke in Hindi instead of Gujarati. Explaining the reason for the same, Modi said he was speaking in Hindi because the BJP winning 80% seats in the elections was an event of national importance.

Modi also said that the spectacular win should not be seen as his victory, but as a victory of 'Team BJP'.

"This is the victory of lakhs of dedicated workers who worked selflessly for the party," he said.

Taking a dig at the media, the CM said that while the BJP had been able to win people's hearts with its politics of peace, security and development, more efforts were needed to win over the media.

The CM also scoffed at attempts to paint him bigger than the BJP, saying, "Without BJP, Modi is nothing. Modi would be nobody without the BJP. Whatever Modi is, it is because of the hard work and sweat of lakhs of BJP workers. I am a small worker and I should not be projected as bigger than my party,"
"The BJP is my mother, and no son can be bigger than his mother," he added.

Expressing confidence that the BJP would also do very well in the upcoming panchayat and municipality elections, Modi said, "Our critics say that people only in cities vote for us. We will show them that the BJP has support of people even in rural areas. They just have to wait for ten more days (before the district panchayat, taluka panchayat and municipality elections)."

While thanking the citizens and party workers for the stunning victory, Modi said their responsibilities had now gone up. He also said that he and the government would fulfill their responsibility and serve the people with humility.

"We have followed the principles of democracy so far, and are committed to and will make all efforts to do the same in the future," he said.

Lashing out at the Congress, Modi said: "An advertisement by Congress party appealed the people to slay the 10-headed Ravana. I am glad to say that this is exactly what the people of Gujarat have done. The people have given a fitting reply to people indulging in mudslinging."

Modi also said that while other parties had resorted to negative tactics during the election campaigning, the BJP had contested the elections on a plank of positives.

"This is exactly the reason why people have accepted us even with out shortcomings," he thundered, to a large round of applause from the gathering. The CM accused the Congress-led UPA government of misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"The Congress has been blatantly misusing the CBI for political vengeance. But I want to remind them that they can put someone in jail by misusing CBI, but this will not help them win an election," he thundered.

While saying that the Delhi Sultanate was very powerful, Modi said that people of Gujarat had given it a good lesson.

He also accused Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj of misusing his office and partisan behaviour to oust the BJP government led by BS Yeddyurappa, saying it was inappropriate on the part of the governor to resort to such tactics.