New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took a dig at “shehzada” (prince) Rahul Gandhi for promising to remove poverty from the country in a single stroke.

Their manifesto is to make the country financially bankrupt

He called the Congress MP a “shahi jaadugar” (royal magician), who stunned the country with his one-stroke poverty removal remark.

The Prime Minister made the remarks while addressing a public rally in Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, just hours after he unveiled the BJP’s poll manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi as “Congress ke shehzade” (prince of Congress), he said “the whole country was surprised when he announced that he would remove poverty in one stroke”.

“The country is also asking where this “shahi jaadugar” (royal magician) was hiding for so many years.’

At a poll rally in Rajasthan last week, Rahul Gandhi said that if the Congress wins in the upcoming general elections, it would ensure that “poverty is erased in one stroke”.

“If you are below the poverty line, then every year Rs 1 lakh khatakhat khatakhat aata rahega aur ek jhatke se hum Hindustan se garibi ko mita denge (the amount will keep coming and with one stroke we will remove poverty from India),” he added.

As per the Congress manifesto, the party would ensure that women belonging to poor households would get Rs 1 lakh per year under the Mahalakshmi scheme.

At the rally in Hoshangabad, the Prime Minister further slammed the Congress, saying that “one family” of the party ran the government “directly or through remote control” for many decades after independence.

“This family had imposed an Emergency in the country, used to demolish democratic governments across the country whenever they wanted, like a house of cards,” he added.

“Before 2014, they ran the government through the remote a for 10 years and are saying that they have got ‘jhatke vala’ mantra. Where did they get this mantra from? Tell me, is this not a mockery of the poor? Is this not an insult to the poor?”

Regarding the poll manifestos of Opposition parties, the Prime Minister said leaders of the INDIA bloc “are not able to decide that a manifesto is a responsibility, a commitment to the people of the country”.

“There are many dangerous promises in their manifesto. Their manifesto is to make the country financially bankrupt,” he added.

Prime Minister Modi went on to say that “Congress ka shahi parivar” (Congress’s royal family) is “threatening that if Modi becomes Prime Minister for the third time, the country will be on fire”.

“The fire is not in the country, but the fire and jealousy are in their hearts. This jealousy is so intense that it is burning from within. This jealousy is due to the love of 140 crore countrymen for Modi.”