Change Of Alliance's Name Won't Wash Off Opposition's Sins: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Monday the opposition alliance might have changed its name from UPA to INDIA but it will not be able to wash off its "sins of corruption and misgovernance".

Addressing a meeting of 44 NDA MPs from the western part of Uttar Pradesh from upto the Kanpur-Bundelkhand region, he said the ruling alliance has been serving society and the country and receiving people's blessings, sources said.

Modi asked MPs to go to people with positive message around the government's work and advised them to spend maximum time about people to reach out to them. He later spoke to the alliance MPs from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand at a similar meeting on the Parliament annexe.

According to the sources, the prime minister said the opposition alliance will not be able to wash off its "sins of corruption and misgovernance" by changing its name. The BJP has divided NDA MPs region-wise into clusters of nearly 40 MPs and Modi is expected to speak to them separately during the ongoing Parliament's monsoon session. The first two meetings were held on Monday.

The meetings have been organised to mark the NDA's 25 years in existence and shape its strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and BJP president J P Nadda also addressed the meetings.

While there was no official word in the addresses of top BJP leaders, including Modi, sources said they highlighted the government's welfare measures and India's growth in various sectors under this dispensation.

The prime minister has expressed confidence about the ruling alliance retaining power at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in his recent addresses to NDA leaders and BJP MPs. Modi had last week derided the opposition alliance INDIA as the most directionless the country had ever seen and cited reviled names such as East India Company and Indian Mujahideen to assert that people cannot be misled merely by the use of the country's name.