Bhubaneswar: BJP president JP Nadda Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed the culture of politics in India forcing all parties to talk about development.
Nadda was addressing a programme in Bhubaneswar where the BJP’s manifesto for the Odisha Assembly elections was released.
“PM Modi has changed the culture of politics, as a result of which all the parties are now forced to talk about development,” he said.
Nadda claimed that during the Congress regime, manifestos were just a formality before the elections.
“But after Modi came to power in 2014, manifestos have gained importance. People are taking them as serious documents,” he said.
“Even those who released the manifesto did not take them seriously earlier,” Nadda said, stating that for the BJP, the promises made in the manifesto were commitments to the people.
He said suggestions of lakhs of people from different parts of the state were taken into consideration for preparing the manifesto.
He claimed that while the BJP focuses on the commitments it makes in the manifesto, for its opponents, the focus is on the politics of casteism, regionalism and nepotism.
He said India had become the fifth largest economy in the world and would climb to the third spot “under PM Modi’s leadership in the NDA’s third term”.
This is Nadda’s second visit to the state in the last eight days. He had addressed an election meeting in Berhampur April 28.
PM Modi is scheduled to arrive in Bhubaneswar in the night. He will address election rallies in Berhampur and Nabarangpur Monday.
Odisha will vote for its 147-member Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats simultaneously, in four phases, starting May 13.
PTI