Kurukshetra, Sep 14: Eyeing to woo non-Jat and Other Backward Class (OBC) votes in poll-bound Haryana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday lavishly praised Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, saying he has become immensely popular despite his short stint as he dedicates all his time to the state, while also emphasising that was his guarantee that reservations for the Dalits, OBCs and tribals would remain as long as he was alive.

"In such a short time, Nayab Singh Saini became popular in Haryana. Coming from a backward class, Nayab Singh Saini became CM. Whenever I hear praises of Nayab Singh Saini, it fills my heart with pride," PM Modi said at a public meeting in the historical city of Kurukshetra, the party’s first major public meeting ahead of the October 5 Assembly elections.

Giving his development guarantees, by calling them Modi Guarantees, the Prime Minister said in the last few years, Haryana has reached among the top states of the country in terms of investment and income.

"I am proud of this. We have seen the period of the Congress government when the development money was limited to only one district. Every child of Haryana knows in whose pockets that money went. The BJP has connected the whole of Haryana with the development," the Prime Minister said.

He also claimed that the Congress wanted to remove certain provisions such as reservations.

Praising the brief stint of the incumbent Haryana Chief Minister, PM Modi said Saini dedicated all 24 hours to the state.

In March, just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had replaced Manohar Lal Khattar, a Punjabi face, with OBC leader Saini as the Chief Minister after snapping its ties with its major ally, Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Khattar had been the Chief Minister for two consecutive terms since 2014.

Political observers said the support of the Jats is largely divided among the Congress, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and the Indian National Lok Dal, by projecting Saini as the chief ministerial face, the BJP is eyeing to win over the non-Jat and Dalit votes.

The Sainis, the community the Chief Minister belongs to, are close to eight per cent of state's population, whereas the OBC population is significant at 28 per cent.

PM Modi, who arrived in Haryana after addressing a poll rally in Jammu's Doda, where he had ripped through the Congress, renewed his attack on the opposition party.

Claiming there is no other party more dishonest and deceitful than the Congress, which had cheated the people on reservation, the Prime Minister said: "The Congress family has always harboured animosity towards B.R. Ambedkar and vehemently opposed reservations. This family has consistently disrespected Dalits, OBCs, and tribals. When (Pandit Jawaharlal) Nehru was Prime Minister, he opposed reservations, stating that if those with reservations were to get jobs, the quality of government services would deteriorate."

Slamming the Congress government in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, he said: "Two years ago, the Congress government was formed there. But what is the situation there today? No citizen of Himachal is happy today. In Himachal, the Congress has made everything expensive, including electricity, water, petrol and diesel. Cheating the public is the work of the Congress. The free treatment scheme that the BJP had started earlier in Himachal and the scheme for providing bank help to youth, all such schemes have now collapsed there."

He said his party had introduced the Ayushman Bharat scheme for all senior citizens above the age of 70, which gives free healthcare of up to Rs 5 lakh.

PM Modi launched the party's campaign with an aim to retain the helm in the state for the third straight term.

A total of 23 candidates who were present at the Prime Minister's public meeting, which the BJP believes is a platform to showcase strength and unity. The 23 Assembly seats fall in districts on the GT Road belt, comprising Panchkula, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, and Panipat and parts of Yamunanagar, Sonipat, and Kaithal.

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the Congress wrested 14 seats from the BJP, mostly falling along this belt, considered the stronghold of the BJP.

In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP won 40 seats, well below the 75-plus target, and was six short of a majority in the 90-member Assembly. It then announced an alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala, great-grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.

The Congress won 31 seats, while the less-than-year-old JJP, which broke away from the state's once major regional party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) owing to family disputes, won 10 seats. Seven Independents and one each of the INLD and the Haryana Lokhit Party had also won.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, BJP had won 47 seats and formed the government in the state for the first time. (IANS)

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