Union Minister of State for Agriculture Purushottam Rupala urged voters to conduct a “surgical strike” by using their right to vote, the most potent tool in democracy, to inflict a crushing defeat on the Congress in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

“You (voters) need not go to the border to protect our country from enemies. Our valiant jawans are capable of defending our territorial integrity,” he said while hitting out strongly at the Congress for “seeking proof” of the Indian Air Force’s surgical strikes on terror camps inside Pakistan following the terror attack on the CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district in February this year.

Addressing an election meeting to gather support for the party candidate from Khammam Lok Sabha seat D. Vasudeva Rao here on Sunday, Mr. Purushottam slammed the Congress accusing it of carrying out a vicious propaganda against the Narendra Modi-led BJP government for narrow political ends.

“Opposition parties tried to find fault with Mr. Modi’s appreciation of the landmark achievement of our scientists who demonstrated the anti-satellite missile capability,” he said. He alleged that the Congress earned notoriety for thrusting a “scam-ridden” regime on the country for a long in the past.

Stable governance

The BJP regime at the Centre has provided a five-year stable and “scam-free” governance, he asserted, lashing out at the Congress for spreading “false propaganda” against the BJP regime, unable to digest its “efficient track record.”

Listing out various development and welfare schemes launched by the Modi regime, he said the Prime Minister digitally launched the ambitious PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana in February paving the way for ₹6,000 direct cash transfer to the bank accounts of the eligible small and marginal farmers across the country under the landmark scheme.

Former Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, who joined the BJP in the presence of Mr. Modi in Hyderabad last week, accompanied Mr. Purushottam.