Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "publicity Prime Minister" and said the nation needs a new Prime Minister who can perform.
"This Prime Minister is a publicity Prime Minister, not a performing Prime Minister. He and his government have betrayed the nation," he said.
"Five years ago, people gave the mandate for the BJP. They betrayed the nation. They gave slogans. Jan Dhan, mudra loan, good governance, smart cities, bringing back black money, two crore jobs, acche din. These are all slogans. None of these have been fulfilled," he pointed out.
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"He (PM Modi) promised that the income of the farmers will be doubled but in reality, farmers are still reeling under the poverty, they are not getting Minimum Support Price and are also committing suicide due to weak policies. The agricultural growth rate of the country has also slowed down," Naidu added.
"BJP wanted to divide the country but we all are here to unite it. The BJP has betrayed the nation despite getting the full mandate," he added.
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister also took a jibe at the Centre over the Rafale fighter jets deal, saying: "They have misled the nation on this issue too. They also misled the Supreme Court by filing the wrong affidavit. They have only bought 36 Rafale jets with a large sum of money. They are betraying the nation in a big way."
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"Not only that, the present government is also misusing their powers by influencing premier institutions like CBI and ED," he added.
Chief Minister Naidu also commented on the ongoing MLA poaching issue in the state of Karnataka and said, "In Karnataka, it is an elected government but they want to manipulate and destabilise the Karnataka government. They are going to pay a heavy price. BJP is offering bribes to MLAs in the state. Just like animals, they want to purchase the MLAs. They are misusing their powers. We have only one ambition - save India, save democracy".
The mega rally organised by the TMC is being seen as a first step towards the formation of a coalition against the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
More than 20 national leaders, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, his son and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Hemant Soren and former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang, took part in the rally.
(With inputs from agencies)
