Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday hosted a dinner for leaders of National Democratic Alliance parties that was attended by top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray among others.
The dinner was followed by a meeting in which nearly two dozen allies facilitated Prime Minister Modi.
All NDA partners came one after another and felicitated him with a shawl.
Top leaders of the NDA were sitting on the dais with Modi, on whose one side was Shah and on other its was Shiromani Akali Dal's Parkash Singh Badal, the senior most leader of the alliance.
Besides them Nitish, Thackeray, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari were also there.
At the meeting, Modi expressed concern over the 'needless controversy' created by the Opposition over electronic voting machines, even as the ruling alliance laid out its agenda for the next five years if it is elected to power again.
At the ruling alliance meeting, which was attended by 36 parties, a resolution was passed, terming the 2019 general election decisive for the country and pledging to make India 'strong, developed, prosperous and inclusive' by 2022 when India completes 75 years of its independence, party leader and Union minister Rajnath Singh told reporters.
In his address, Modi stressed on the need to change the narrative from caste lines and orient it for the poor, Singh said.
The prime minister expressed concern over the Opposition making "needless controversy" over electronic voting machines, the home minister said.
Earlier on Tuesday, leaders of 22 opposition parties met the Election Commission and demanded verification of VVPAT slips of randomly-selected polling stations before the counting of the votes.
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan proposed the resolution.
Paswan, who joined Singh in the media briefing, also dismissed Opposition's protest over EVMs as a case of collective frustration over their impending defeat and also warned them of ‘tit for tat’.
He did not elaborate what he meant by that.
The Lok Janshakti Party chief said Modi also turned emotional when he mentioned the political violence, ‘targeting’ BJP workers, in states of Kerala and West Bengal.
The meeting is being seen as NDA's show of strength ahead of counting of votes on May 23, following which a new government will assume charge.
The NDA resolution expressed its concern over the 'systematic assault by the Opposition on institutions ranging from the CAG, Election Commission and judiciary to police and armed forces'.
Modi described the NDA as an alliance of India's hope and aspirations, saying it has become an ‘organic entity’ like a family and is representative of the country's regional aspirations.
The NDA leaders at the meeting, which was presided by Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, felicitated the prime minister and praised his council of ministers for their work.
The resolution also expressed confidence that the NDA will come back to power under Modi and said its government planned a capital investment of Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure while Rs 25 lakh crore will be devoted to farm and rural sectors.
It praised the outgoing government's development and welfare initiatives.
Singh said its work on the security and diplomatic fronts have ensured that India is no longer seen as a 'soft state' by the world.
"We resolved that once again under the leadership of PM Modi, by 2022, when India marks 75 years of freedom, it is our endeavour to fulfil the dreams of our great freedom fighters and give shape to the strong, prosperous, developed and inclusive India they dreamt of," it said.
Besides representatives of 36 NDA constituents, Singh said leaders of three other parties also sent their letters of support at the alliance meeting.
The meeting follows another meeting of the council of ministers called by Shah to thank them for 'their service to the nation'.
