Prime Minister Narendra Modi fired up a big, raucous rally in a hot Delhi late Wednesday as India’s almost seven-week election approaches its conclusion later this month.
“When work is done with good intentions, it also yields results. Inflation used to be on a rise, it is now under control,” Modi told the crowd of several tens of thousands.
“The poor have access to houses, toilets, electricity and are being given benefits of Ayushman Bharat (a free health scheme),” the right-winger thundered.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won all seven Delhi parliamentary seats in 2014, and hopes to fend off a mounting challenge from the Congress Party and local upstart the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The AAP, formed on an anti-corruption plank in 2012, stormed to power in Delhi in state elections in 2015 under its charismatic but polarising leader, Arvind Kejriwal.
Kejriwal, now Delhi chief minister, has since accused Modi’s central government of constantly stopping or disrupting his city government’s key schemes and initiatives.
But Modi told the crowd of children in Modi masks, women in saris and young party cadres in orange BJP hats — plus the occasional person in a Hindu deity costume — not to be fooled.“People of Delhi have been fooled by a bunch of no-gooders who promised a new kind of politics. But they have become synonymous with anarchy and obstructionism,” the Hindu nationalist said.
Source: dawn.com
Saturday, April 18, 2026
