"India Might Become Developed Country 10-15 Years Before 2047": Union Minister

The speed with which the BJP-led Centre is working, India might attain the status of a developed country 10-15 years before the target set for 2047, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said here on Sunday.

Addressing a traders' convention in the Amar Colony area, Mr Puri said Delhi needs to be developed as a capital suitable to the status of the world's third-largest economy.

"When Narendra Modi became the prime Minister in 2014, the country was the 10th-largest economy of the world and now, it is the fifth largest. In the next two years, it will attain the position of the world's third-largest economy, surpassing Germany and Japan," he said.

Urging the traders to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win all the seven seats in Delhi in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, the Union minister said "the speed and power with which work is going on, India might become a developed country 10-15 years before 2047".

Mr Puri assured the traders that he would help develop the Amar Colony market.

Slamming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his outbursts against Modi and the BJP, he took a dig at the AAP leader, saying "he has come out (of Tihar Jail) on interim bail after enjoying state hospitality, but the case against him is still on".

Mr Puri said in the ongoing parliamentary polls, while there is PM Modi's model of development on one hand, on the other, there is the "revri (freebies)" model of Delhi.

Besides Mr Puri, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union minister V K Singh, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva, the party's national general secretary Dushyant Gautam and BJP Yuva Morcha national president Tejasvi Surya, among others, campaigned for the saffron party's Lok Sabha poll candidates here on Sunday.

In the morning, Sikhs took out a motorcycle rally from the Delhi BJP office to the party's headquarters. The motorcycle rally was led by BJP national secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa. The saffron party also started a voter-slip distribution campaign.

Besides, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituent Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary addressed an OBC (Other Backward Classes) convention in Nand Nagari.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rightfully honoured the OBC community in the government and within his party organisation. The result of the respect received from the prime minister is that today, the OBC community stands firmly behind the NDA," Mr Chaudhary said.

Delhi BJP vice-president Kapil Mishra addressed the party's OBC and Poorvanchal Morcha conferences in the West Delhi and North West Delhi constituencies respectively.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)