Fashionable for the Congress to talk on poor, poverty: Modi

Banswara/Barmer (Rajasthan), April 12: Taking a dig at

leader Rahul Gandhi,

's prime ministerial candidate

Saturday said he has lived the life of a poor and knows what poverty was, but for some people, it has become fashionable to talk about the poor and poverty.

"Like a child appearing in an exam chants the name of god, the Congress starts chanting names of the poor when elections come. It has become quite fashionable for them," Modi said at an election rally at Saladiya, a tribal area in Rajasthan's Banswara district.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said poverty has become like a "tourist destination" for some people.

"They take along with them a couple of photographers, get themselves clicked with a child from a poor family and claim that they are working towards the welfare of the poor.

"However, how can Shehzada claim to know what poverty is? To pass time, people talk about cinema and cricket, for Shehzada, talking about poverty is the favourite pastime," said Modi.

"I know what poverty is. I sold tea to people in trains and slept hungry at night. I know what poverty really is because I have lived it."

The Gujarat chief minister said the results of the Lok Sabha election are already known to the people.

"The existing government will lose. Even black magic cannot save them because it has been 60 years since independence, but Congress has done nothing for the tribals. It was (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji who set up a separate ministry for tribal people," he said.

Earlier, Modi addressed a rally in Barmer district where he stressed the development of infrastructure in Rajasthan for gas and petroleum, saying their immense potential can give the country new strength and make the state the "pride of India".

"I know how hard you work and how important water is for you. We want to link rivers. We want to fulfill Atal Bihari Vajpayee's dream of interlinking rivers. Scope for gas and petroleum is immense in this region. It can give new strength to the nation," he said at the rally in Pachpadra.

"Like water, gas and petrol can make this land the pride of India. And this is exactly what our priority will be," the BJP leader said.

Modi said people have decided to go for good governance and development and not for vote bank politics, which has done no good for the nation.

"It pains me how vote bank politics has weakened our nation and caused divisions. We need to save India from it."

He said that unlike the Congress, he will not fool them but return the love and faith people have bestowed on him in the form of development.

Modi said the Gujarat government has started a petroleum university and urged Rajasthan's youth to study there.

Taking a dig at the Congress, Modi said the party has "misused" every government agency to trouble him.

"In the last 10 years, every agency has been misused to trouble me. They worked overtime on this," he said, in an indirect reference to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

He said if the BJP comes to power, his government will work towards bringing back to India the black money stashed in banks overseas.