Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today sought a decisive mandate for BJP in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, saying the 15-year-rule of Congress and NCP have "destroyed" the state.
Modi, who started his whirlwind campaign tour in the state today by addressing rallies at Beed, Aurangabad and Mumbai, however never once mentioned BJP's former ally Shiv Sena.
"A generation has been destroyed with youth, farmers, women, tribals and backward classes not benefitting during the Congress-NCP rule," Modi said.
The Prime Minister took a swipe at his detractors saying that instead of seeking votes, they were competing to criticise him.
"They are forgetting that people taught them a lesson in the Lok Sabha polls," he said, adding they may face a similar fate in the assembly polls.
In Mumbai, Modi said the city had witnessed maximum terror attacks, and after Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra had seen the highest number of communal clashes.
Congress and NCP had failed to address the concerns of the youth who want development and want to rise above the politics of caste, creed and religion, he said.
Mumbai was "a mini-India" and whatever happens in the city is reflected elsewhere in the country, Modi said. "I want to take all sections of the society along and climb new heights of development," the Prime Minister said.
His government's maiden budget offered tax concessions for the middle class, enabling saving of Rs 35,000 per person every year, Modi said, while promising that slum dwellers would get homes of their own by 2022.
The key projects in and around Mumbai such as Navi Mumbai airport, Sea Link and Metro would be completed and inaugurated in his tenure itself, he assured.
The decision to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the railways will help strengthen suburban railway network in Mumbai, Modi said.
