Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | PoK 'was, is and will remain ours': Rajnath Singh

Ballia/Lucknow (UP): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday asserted that PoK 'was, is and will remain ours' while also hitting out at the opposition parties for raking up the China issue.

During another poll rally later in the day in Lucknow, from where he is contesting, Singh said, "These elections are also to see who has raised the country's stature in the world."

Accusing the opposition parties of spreading confusion on the China issue, he said, "India has not lost anything. We will not let India lose anything. Talks are ongoing ... we are confident that a solution will be found."

Addressing an election rally in Ballia's Sikandarpur in support of the BJP's Salempur candidate Ravindra Kushwaha, Singh also asserted, "Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) was ours, is ours and will remain ours."

Elaborating on his statement during the Lucknow rally, Singh said, "I had said three years ago that we don't need to attack (anyone) to capture PoK. One day, people there will themselves demand to join India. You must have seen that such a situation has been created there today." "I would like to appeal to international human rights bodies to see how people in PoK are being harassed," the defence minister added.

He was accompanied by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.

Singh claimed that after four phases of elections, political analysts not only in India but across the world believe that the BJP is going to form the government by winning more than 400 seats.

He also launched an attack on I.N.D.I.A. bloc partners AAP, Samajwadi Party and the Congress and committed to implementing a uniform civil code.

"We will implement a uniform civil code, that is our commitment. We do not work against any religion. Everyone living in the country -- be it Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Jews -- are our brothers. I am talking about a uniform civil code because it is one of the policy-making principles of the Constitution," he said.

Attacking the opposition parties over claims that Modi is seeking 400 seats in the Lok Sabha so that the BJP can change the Constitution, Singh recalled the Emergency period under the Congress rule and said, "You strangled democracy and are blaming us. No one can end democracy."

"I want to tell political parties that politics should not be done just to form a government but to build a nation," he said in Lucknow. "I am asking for your votes not just to become a MP but because we want to build the nation and raise its stature in the world."

The defence minister accused the Samajwadi Party and the Congress of making whatever allegations that come to their minds against the BJP.

"The bicycle's (the Samajwadi Party election symbol) chain has come off," he said.

He also compared the Congress with dinosaurs and said the grand old party will become extinct.

"The condition of the Congress has become so weak that if after 10 years you say 'Congress', people will ask 'who Congress?' Just as dinosaurs became extinct from the face of the earth, the Congress will become extinct from India," Singh said.

He also hit out at AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the alleged assault on party MP Swati Maliwal at his residence.

Talking about the development of Lucknow, Singh said, "I have done whatever was possible for the development of Lucknow and I can say that Lucknow has entered the world's top 10 cities in terms of development." Adityanath mentioned the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the development of the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and said the nation has been secured in the 10 years under Modi.

He pointed to terror attacks during previous governments and criticised the opposition for 'politics of appeasement'.

"I want to warn you about the people of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc as they have set their eyes on your property," the chief minister said.

Singh and Adityanath also appealed to the electorate to vote for OP Srivastav, the BJP candidate for the assembly bypoll in Lucknow East.

The seat became vacant following the death of incumbent MLA Ashutosh Tandon.

Polling in Lucknow will take place on May 20. Salempur goes to the polls in the last phase of the elections on June 1.