Jharkhand: PM Modi attacks JMM-Congress alliance, calls it corrupt

Days ahead of the second phase of assembly polls in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday targeted the Congress saying that it followed corrupt practices while in coalition with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). "Today, Jharkhand has a very good reputation in the country and across the world. Five years ago, when the Congress-JMM was in power, there were only reports of corruption and loot. Many top leaders of these parties are still facing corruption cases," said the Prime Minister while addressing a public rally in Jamshedpur.

He also stated that Jharkhand was in the spotlight for being politically unstable when Congress was in power and added "For their selfish motives (Congress) they even made a deal for the Chief Minister's post. All of you are aware of the games they played here while in power.""Within a span of 15 years, Jharkhand has seen Chief Ministers change ten times. I was the chief minister of Gujarat for 13 years. This stability helped Gujarat to reach great heights," PM Modi said.

He added, "BJP has put a stop to the instability of governments and for the first time Jharkhand had a stable chief minister for five years."He also said that this stability has helped in effectively dealing with Naxalism in the state and as a result, a favourable environment for business has been created in the state. In his concluding remark, Prime Minister Modi recalled the schemes introduced by the BJP government for the development of the state saying, "A nationwide campaign to open Eklavya Model Residential School in tribal areas was also started from Jharkhand." There are 81 constituencies in Jharkhand, out of which 20 will go for polling in the second phase on December 7, while the counting of votes will take place on December 23.

( With inputs from ANI )