With the BJP emerging victorious in the civic polls (municipalities, taluka and panchayats), a confident Modi left no stone unturned in celebrating the party's success and ripping apart the Congress.
Employing his usual brand of sarcastic humour, Modi said the Centre ruled by the Congress had employed investigating and intelligence agencies like CBI, RAW and IB against him.
"Had they worked in a similar fashion against the neighbouring countries, we could have curbed the problem of terrorism," Modi commented. He harped on the 'misuse of investigating agencies' by the Congress and the vote bank based politics of the latter.
In the speech Modi emphasised on the change in the voting pattern where the poor, tribal, women, Muslims and Christians, who are considered to be traditional Congress vote banks, voted for the BJP in this election.
Modi said it was 10 years of hard work that was now showing result. "After ten years of hard work, this time the four main constituencies of the state - the minorities, women, tribals and poor, have voted for us in this election,'' he said. Targeting Congress and pointing at the minority community's 'attachment with BJP', Modi said the minorities have moved towards the BJP as they now want to support a politics of development.
"This is the first election in which 100 Muslim candidates of the BJP have emerged victorious. This makes it clear that in the country, Muslims and Christians have realised that vote-bank politics have so far not benefited them," Modi said.
Lauding the change, he said the trend is likely to continue in the future too. Taking a jibe at the Congress' poor performance he said the BJP was victorious in year 2005 too.
"But in 2010, the Congress lost whatever it had gained previously. This time the party lost about 1000 places," he said. He said the BJP works with devotion. "When I was exploring the state for the Garib Kalyan Melas, they alleged that I was just distributing Delhi fund. Then why don't they do it in Maharashtra?" he asked.
Taking a pot shot at political pundits he asked them to make their evaluation on the basis of 21st century opinions. Modi also made a mention of Forbes magazine and its praiseworthy description of Gujarat and Ahmedabad as a fast developing state and city. "If a foreign magazine can see this, then I request political pundits of India to give a thought as to why we win with a huge margin in Gujarat. Think about why people continue to have faith in us even after so many years in power," he said.
