PM’s hat-trick of initiatives drives India towards ‘Viksit Bharat’: Anurag Thakur

PTI, May 12, 2024, 2:28 PM IST

Asserting that continuity in governance is important for the country’s progress, Union minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ready to hit an electoral hat-trick and move towards the target of building ”Viksit Bharat” (developed India).

In an interview to PTI, Thakur said no charges hurled by the Opposition can stick on Modi. Dubbing as ”laughable” the opposition’s claim of victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Thakur exuded confidence that the BJP was well on its way to achieving the goal of 370 seats which includes the 303 seats it won last time and 70 seats where it finished second.

These 70 seats were part of 160 parliamentary segments that the BJP had identified after 2019 to launch an extensive ministerial outreach.

”I can say after the third phase of elections that Modi ji is on a hat-trick. I say this due to one-sided polling. Congress workers have retreated from the battlefield. In Surat and Indore, Congress candidates withdrew from elections. In Odisha, they returned tickets. Rahul Gandhi ran away from Amethi and fled to Wayanad in 2019. Now he has come to Rae Bareli. I don’t know where he will go next,” the minister noted.

Thakur, a four-time MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh contesting for the fifth time in a row, said it is in Modi’s name that he was seeking people’s mandate once again and also in the name of development works initiated over the last few years as MP.

”Stability and continuity are key for the country’s progress and enable the government to continue with policies and programmes to ensure India remains on track to become the third largest economy just as it has leaped from the 10th largest economy pre 2014 to the fifth largest under Modi rule,” he said.

The senior minister also flagged an old video of veteran Congressman Mani Shankar Aiyar urging India to respect Pakistan and asked, ”How come they remember Pakistan and how come Pakistan remembers Congress?” He also asked why ‘tukde tukde gang’ people join the Congress and why PFI and SDPI support the Congress.

”When anti-India forces support the Congress, a natural question that arises is to what extent can the Congress fall for votes,” Thakur alleged.

On whether the charges against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald matter will be expedited, Thakur said probe agencies were independent to act.

”How much time the Court takes in punishing the culprits, no one can decide. From our side, action should have been taken against Rahul ji, Sonia ji and Chidambaram ji a long time back. Even in Nirbhaya rape case, the crime was committed in 2012 but the punishment was given in 2020. It is a legal process and courts have to decide,” he explained.