Modi says he will sell chai if he fails

• Targets Gandhis in their pocket-borough Amethi
• Attacks all the three, one by one, accusing them of arrogance
• Tells Priyanka who Smriti Irani is—she is my younger sister
• Likens PV to last Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar who was denied a piece of land for burial in Delhi

If I lose, my kettle is ready. I will go back and sell tea. My honour is in your hands. The honour of a servant, a son of a poor mother, a tea vendor

New Delhi: BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi chose to have his last word in Amethi by choosing to campaign and seek votes for BJP candidate Smriti Irani, minutes before the campaign ended in the Gandhi bastion.

Modi declared, “Ab Amethi hai taiyaar. Ab ki baar Modi Sarkar” (Amethi is now ready, this time Modi government). Shehzada, as Rahul is called by Modi, was away in Allahabad, busy campaigning for Phulpur candidate, when the saffron brigade was unleashed in his constituency. Breaking the unwritten code of not taking on the opponent on his home-turf, Modi took the battle right into the enemy-camp. Tearing into the Gandhi family, Modi declared, “Maa-Beta ki sarkar gayi” (gone is the government of mother and son). “Jail ke panchchi bhi ab unhe bacha nahi sakte” (Even the jail birds cannot rescue them), he asserted, referring to the support given by RJD leader Lalu Yadav.

He appealed to the voters to give him a chance to serve, after having voted for the Gandhi family for 60 years.

“Give me only 60 months and see the change for yourself,” he appealed to the crowd. He introduced Smriti Irani as his younger sister, who has the capability of transforming a backward district into a model district.

He said that Amethi was chosen by him as the most backward region of the Uttar Pradesh and he decided to send Smriti Irani to change the face of the constituency.

Modi’s speech was laced with satire and emotions. Each and every criticism made against him by the trio – Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka – was countered by him in the Gandhi pocket-borough. He attacked the dynastic rule of the Congress, both at the Centre and particularly in Amethi, where no development has taken place. He said that Rahul Gandhi was misleading the people when he blamed the Uttar Pradesh government for not heeding to his requests. He wondered how Samajwadi Party was turning a deaf ear to his plea of supplying electricity and power to his constituency, when they are so sympathetic that they have not even fielded a candidate against him. He challenged Rahul Gandhi to release even one letter written to the UP government, which was ignored by them on issues relating to the development of Amethi, accusing him of speaking lies. Modi asked the voters to select BJP candidate Smriti Irani this time, who has the potential to teach a lesson to the Gandhi family. If that was not enough, he drew comparisons between TV artist-turned-politician Smriti Irani with the Gandhis, saying that while the former, who has landed in Amethi just 25 days back, can name 100 villages of the constituency, all the three, mother, son and daughter, cannot name more than 10 villages of Amethi.

Gunning for the Gandhis, the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate took on all the three, one by one. Accusing them of arrogance, Modi took a snipe at Priyanka Gandhi for wanting to know “who” Smriti Irani is, when asked by a scribe about her. “I will tell you, who she is. She is my younger sister. She has come here to transform Amethi,” declared Modi, praising her ability to grasp issues relating to the constituency. Talking about ABCD, he said that he will start with Amethi's A and go upto Vikas-V.

Similarly, Narendra Modi did not spare Rahul Gandhi, who had blamed him for playing the politics of anger. He reminded the Congress Vice-President that it was his father, who had lost his cool publicly and had humiliated the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T Anjiah at the Hyderabad airport in early 1980s. The then Congress President Sitaram Kesri, likewise, was humiliated by Sonia Gandhi supporters, who threw him out on the streets in order to get her elected as the Congress president. Kesri, too, belonged to the OBC community like him, he told the gathering, playing the caste card. Modi likened former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao to last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was denied a piece of land in Delhi for burial by the British. Sonia Gandhi, similarly, denied permission for performing the last rites of Narasimha Rao in Delhi. His body was not allowed to be taken inside the AICC premises for paying the last respects. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was slammed publicly by Rahul Gandhi, when he chose to tear apart the Ordinance on protecting the convicted lawmakers at a press conference. The Prime Minister was away on a tour abroad.

Lambasting Sonia Gandhi, who had criticised him for his comment, “Yeh Dil Maange more,” he said that there was nothing wrong to ask. “Even today, I have come to ask,” he said and repeated, “Yeh dil maange more.” He said that he viewed people as God and he felt proud to ask. “Have the families like you left anything for us except to ask” he said and declared, “It is better to ask than to loot.” Striking a chord, he said, that if he loses, he will get back to selling tea to make a living, which was a more honourable way of life.

Selling the dream of transforming Amethi into a model district in the country, he told the residents that he had come to share their pain.

“I have come to create dreams; your dreams should become my dream,” he said and appealed to the voters that they should vote for “servant” instead of a “ruler” this time, if at all, they want to change their lives. “Good times are coming,” he assured them, invoking the ad slogan of his party.