New Delhi: Addressing a poll rally in Dwarka in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Delhi was set back by 25 years due to the President’s rule.

In a reference to the past year, when Delhi was under President’s Rule, he said, “The year that was wasted set us back 25 years.” He also took a swipe at his opponents who had said that the prices of petrol and diesel have come down in India because “Modi is lucky”. He received a thunderous applause when he asked his audience whether they would like a lucky person or someone who was less lucky.

Coming down heavily on the Congress and the AAP, Mr Modi said “they forged a friendship behind the curtains to form government.”

At Badarpur, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said that the country was not run on slogans. “It takes struggle and sacrifice to develop a country. This is only in the Congress.One is a pracharak (campaigner) and the other is a dharnabaaz (agitator). The country does not run on speeches. We need the spirit of struggle and dedication,” she said.

Targetting the Modi government at the Centre over its campaign promise of bringing ‘achchhe din’, Mrs Gandhi said, “The Modi government is in power now. I want to ask what happened to the promised Rs 15 lakh that they were supposed to give every person after getting back black money? What happened to jobs for the youth? Where are the reduced prices ? This is the reality of the hollow promise of achchhe din.”

Saying that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the Centre had strengthened land rights through the Land Acquisition Bill, the Congress president said that the current Central government had opened it up for land grabbers.

“We gave food to 67 per cent people through the food security scheme. They have brought it down to 40 per cent people,” the Congress president said.