Dharamsala/Nahan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today targeted the Congress over “rampant corruption and loot of public money” and for questioning the Army’s surgical strikes and supporting Kashmir’s “independence.”

Addressing his first poll rally at Rehan in Kangra, the PM said the “devbhoomi (Himachal Pradesh)” was afflicted by five demons — the forest mafia, mining mafia, transfer mafia, tender mafia and drug mafia — and exhorted the people to end these demons by voting for the BJP on November 9.

Ridiculing the Congress promise on “zero tolerance” to corruption, he said: “Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is on bail and the Congress talks of zero tolerance towards corruption. Will anybody believe that?”

Describing Himachal as the land of “martyrs and soldiers,” he sought to strike a chord with ex-servicemen.

“Statements of Congress leaders (reference to P Chidambaram) supporting Kashmir’s ‘azadi’ are an insult to the martyrs of the state, and their kin should punish the Congress for such utterances,” Modi said. He questioned the purpose of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with the Chinese envoy during the Doklam standoff. “Can the country trust such leaders,” he asked the gathering. At Dhaulan Kuan in Sirmaur district, Modi said the Congress had been reduced to a “laughing club” that neither understood the people, nor their issues.

“The BJP will form the next government under the leadership of PK Dhumal and even the Congress is aware of its imminent defeat,” he claimed, alleging that public money, that should have been used for development works in the state, had been plundered by the Congress.

Explaining the need for Aadhaar, he said a sum of Rs 57,000 crore that earlier went to “bogus” beneficiaries had now been saved. He ridiculed the Congress for its criticism of the World Bank report on institutional reforms, ranking India on the 100th spot.