BJP came to power by making false promises: Digvijay Singh

Hyderabad, Aug 24: Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power by "making false promises", Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday said some shortcoming lay with his party too in taking the UPA's achievements effectively to the people.

"Gujarat model of development. What is this Gujarat model of development? By making false promises and spreading them, people of this country were misled. Narendra Modi was Chief Minister for 12 years. Number of poor grew. Malnutrition grew," Digvijay alleged.

"Eliminating corruption is talked about. But, Babubhai Bokaria, who was given three-year punishment by court, is minister even today. And, they talk about eliminating corruption. Narendra Modi is an expert in speech and making false promises. They (facts) would all come out," he further alleged.

Referring to BJP's charge that Congress has not done anything in 60 years, he wondered whether the inaugurations of projects done by the government in the last 60 days (after NDA came to power) were completed only during the period. The projects inaugurated during the last 60 days, including railway line to Mata Vaishnodevi in Jammu, power project in Leh and NTPC plant, were done by Congress government, he claimed.

"Have you done this in 60 days? You have come this far by making false promises. But, our mistake also lies in this. We could not campaign. We could not take the work of UPA to the people. We could not give confidence to people by taking the achievements of UPA to the people," Singh said.

The AICC General Secretary was speaking at a convention organised on the city outskirts to deliberate on the future course of action for Telangana Congress. Observing that Congress could not muster public support which it should have for having delivered on separate Telangana demand, he said there is a need to reflect on that.

Claiming that the credit for passing the separate Telangana Bill in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha should go to the UPA despite stiff opposition, he said the Congress might not have succeeded in taking it to the people. In an apparent reference to the alleged differences within Telangana Congress, he said: "We are all political workers and we have our ambitions. But, we have to accept that there was a shortcoming on our part."

PTI