BJP is the alternative in Tamil Nadu, says Modi

Hosur (Tamil Nadu), May 6 (IANS) Claiming that Tamil Nadu was steeped in corruption, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the BJP is the alternative to the two Dravidian parties in the state.

Addressing his first assembly election rally here in Tamil Nadu, across the border with Karnataka near Bengaluru, Modi said: "For the first time in Tamil Nadu elections, there is an alternative in the form of BJP."

He said the state government is steeped into corruption and politicians are not ashamed about that.

"The election this time is not about who will win but who will save Tamil Nadu," he remarked in this industrial town of Hosur which is around 315 km from state capital Chennai.

Referring to the floods in Chennai last December, Modi said it was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadres who helped the people at that time of crisis.

He said the BJP-run central government is two years old and there is no corruption charge against it.

Today, there is no corruption in mining and supply of coal unlike in the past, he said. "We are taking the nation on the correct path."

The prime minister said since after the BJP came to power at the Centre, no state chief minister writes a letter to him for urea allocation.

All the previous central governments said they were helpless in arresting the corruption in urea. But this situation was stopped by the BJP government.

"We added neem in urea and hence it was not possible to be used by other chemical companies," he added.

He said the central government put an end to the corruption in the cooking gas subsidy by directly crediting the subsidy amount into consumers' bank account.

"After we came to power we enabled poor to open bank accounts," he said.

"With the formation of Mudhra Bank, without security or guarantee small-time businessmen can get loans. As a result of 3.5 crore small businessmen were lent around Rs.1.30 lakh crore by the Mudhra Bank," Modi said.

Modi said he would bring all the central government schemes to Tamil Nadu if the BJP was voted to power in the state.