Lok Sabha Polls 2019: BJP felicitated man who gatecrashed Digvijaya Singh's Bhopal rally
The BJP has felicitated the young man whose appearance at a Digvijaya Singh rally in Bhopal on Monday quickly became the subject of a viral video.
The senior Congress leader, who faces 2008 Malegaon blasts accused Pragya Singh Thakur in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, was attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his promise to recover black money stashed abroad and deposit 15 lakh in every voter's account at the time.
When the man responded to Mr Singh's question on whether anyone had received the money, he was asked to come on stage. "Modi ji executed a surgical strike on terrorists and killed them," he said. He was interrupted and dragged away by Congress leaders.
The young man, who was identified as Amit Mali, later told news agency ANI that despite his gatecrashing of the rally, nobody "misbehaved" with him afterwards.
The Prime Minister's promise to bring back black money from abroad to India and deposit Rs 15 lakh to every citizen's bank account has provided the opposition parties with ammo to target the government.
Among the first to get off the mark was Bihar leader Lalu Yadav, who said given his large family, he would become a rich man if the Prime Minister fulfilled his promise and questioned why the black money wasn't back yet.
Mr Singh has also criticized the Prime Minister over the concept of a "smart city", claiming this is something about which PM Modi himself is unclear.
He was referring to the Modi government's flagship ''Smart Cities Mission'', which is aimed at developing 100 smart cities, including Bhopal, in the country.
"The definition of a smart city is not clear to Narendra Modi himself. What is a smart city?...The greenery of Bhopal was destroyed for developing it as a smart city," Mr Singh said in a press conference, where he shared his vision document for Bhopal.
Bhopal votes on May 12 in the sixth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. Counting of votes for the general elections will take place on May 23.