PM Modi takes credit for surgical strike and Kartarpur Sahib corridor to woo voters in Pathankot

Prime minister Narendra Modi tried to strike the emotional chord with the people of the bordering districts Pathankot and Gurdaspur of Punjab while blaming the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for 'questioning' the sacrifice of soldiers who were martyred in 2016 Pathankot terrorist attack.

Modi was addressing an election rally in Pathankot seeking votes for Ashwani Kumar, president of the state unit of the BJP, and other party candidates from Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab on Wednesday.

Since a considerable number of families, in this area, have their members in the Indian defence forces, so Modi, taking credit for the ‘surgical strike’ on the PoK, promised that the BJP government will set up more army schools across Punjab where girls can also get admission now.

Playing the religious card, Modi also claimed that the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor to the last resting place of Guru Nanak Dev ji, the founder of Sikhism, in Pakistan was developed and opened for the pilgrims by the BJP-led NDA government.

“Should the Congress leaders have not made efforts to keep the gurudwara in India during Indo-Pak separation in 1947?” he questioned saying that in 1965, if the Congress government had tried, we would have had Guru Nanak Dev ji's birthplace and workplace in India.

Modi also termed the AAP a ‘photocopy’ of the Congress and playing a fixed match in Punjab. “One party has looted Punjab, and the other is doing large scale corruption in Delhi. The AAP with the support of the Congress formed the government in Delhi. Which clearly shows that Congress and AAP are "partners in crime,” Modi pointed out.

Promising a double engine government for Punjab, the PM also allured voters saying that farming, trade and industry would be made profitable in five years if the BJP-led alliance is voted to power in the state.