Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday virtually began the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. High on the people’s response across the nation to the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Prime Minister sought to challenge the Opposition’s narrative of secularism and social justice and linked it to ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’, a phrase he has used repeatedly to guarantee the delivery of welfare schemes to all intended beneficiaries.

“When government’s welfare schemes attain saturation (100 per cent coverage), that is true secularism. When there is no discrimination or differentiation between beneficiaries based on caste and religion, that is true social justice,” PM Modi said in an apparent counter to the Opposition’s charge of “Hindu appeasement” and the INDIA bloc’s key plank of caste census and a revised quota regime.

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“While some gave the slogan of ‘Gareebi Hatao, others kept lying in the name of social justice for a long time after Independence. But poor people witnessed how only a few families became rich and their politics grew. However, things are changing in the country now. Modi is honestly working to serve you and it is because of this that during the last 10 years of our government, 25 crore people have been pulled out of poverty in the country,” the PM said in Bulandshahr where he inaugurated developmental projects worth over Rs 19,100 crore.

Choosing Bulandshahr as the turf to launch his Lok Sabha polls campaign for the second time in a row — he launched the 2019 campaign from here as well — the Prime Minister said that the policies rolled out by his government have been aimed at benefitting small farmers and land labourers, something he claimed the previous government failed to do. Modi’s remarks assume significance since Bulandshahr falls in the Jatland belt of western UP which includes 14 Lok Sabha seats. While the BJP bagged 8 of these seats in this farmers’ belt, it lost six in the aftermath of the farmers’ agitation.

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Of the 80 seats in the state, the BJP had won a resounding 62. It has set a target to win all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the coming elections. With the BJP having successfully managed to successfully engineer the mass mobilisation for the Ayodhya Ram Mandir inauguration, the PM made it a point to refer to the issue during his speech.

“On January 22, I got ‘darshan’ of Lord Ram in Ayodhya and today I have got an opportunity to get ‘darshan’ of ‘janta janardhan’ here… This region gave us Kalyan Singh, who dedicated his life to ‘Ram Kaaj’ and ‘Rashtra Kaaj’,” the PM said, referring to the late UP Chief Minister who was a key proponent of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

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Taking a leaf out of his Ayodhya speech, the PM said that with the Pran Pratishtha now over, the time has come to take ‘Rashtra Pratishtha’ (national prestige) to greater heights. “‘Dev se Desh’ aur ‘Ram se Rashtra’ to agge le jaane kas samay aa gaya hai,” Modi said. The Prime Minister also said that previous governments had deprived Uttar Pradesh of achieving its true potential whereas his government has put the state at the forefront of national development.

“For decades after Independence, development was kept confined to a few regions while a big part of the country remained deprived. Attention was not paid to Uttar Pradesh as for a long time, those who ran governments here behaved like rulers. Development has gathered pace since the formation of the double-engine government in the state. How can the nation progress when its biggest state is weak?” the PM said.

The PM’s remarks came three days after the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, pulling the curtains down on one of India’s longest-running disputes. The BJP has drawn out an elaborate plan to keep the Ram Mandir momentum going well beyond the inauguration ceremony. The visit of as many as 5,000 families from each Lok Sabha constituency is likely to be facilitated as part of this exercise between January and March this year. Lok Sabha elections in the country are expected to be held in April-May this year.