Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that Haryana polls have given the nation’s mood and how it thinks, destroying all attempts by Congress and its “urban naxal” ecosystem to befool voters, and electing the BJP for a historic third term after 10 years of rule.

He was addressing the people of Maharashtra after launching development projects worth over Rs 7,600 crore, via videoconferencing, including the upgradation of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, Nagpur, and the construction of a new Integrated Terminal Building at Shirdi Airport.

The prime minister said Congress tried to spread falsehood among Dalits in Haryana, but the community understood its dangerous game. The Dalits knew that Congress wanted to snatch their share of reservation benefits and distribute them among its “vote bank”. The Dalits gave a record support to the BJP in the Assembly election, he said.

Haryana’s OBCs are with the BJP today because of the development work under its rule, Mr Modi said. Congress tried to incite farmers but even they knew who had given them MSP on their crops. The state’s farmers are happy with the BJP’s welfare schemes for them. Congress even targeted the youth and tried to provoke them in different ways. The youth has faith on the BJP for ensuring their bright future, the prime minister said.

The Congress adopted all methods, but Haryana people showed they were unlikely to fall prey to any of their “hatred” spreading conspiracies of the party or its “urban naxals,” the prime minister said.

In a major attack on Congress, he said the party has always followed the policy of “divide and rule”. It has proved time and again that it is an “irresponsible” party. Congress continues to run new narratives to divide the country and comes up with fresh “formulas” to create divisions in the society. Congress refuses to mend its ways to mislead the nation’s voters, Mr Modi said.

Addressing voters in Maharashtra, where Assembly elections are due later this year, he said the Congress formula is obvious: keep the Muslims in fear and convert their vote bank into votes, while not letting the vote bank lose strength.

The Congress party keeps quiet about castes among Muslims, but when it begins to talk about the Hindus, it starts with their castes, he said. The Congress policy is to make Hindus fight among their castes; the party knows the more the Hindus are divided, the greater will be its advantage, Mr Modi said.

He said Congress wants the Hindu society in eternal conflict so that it could make political capital out of it. Wherever elections take place, it adopts this formula. To secure its vote bank, Congress is trying all ways to spread poison in society. It fights its elections completely on communalism and casteism, he said.

The Congress politics, the prime minister said, rests on creating divisions in the Hindu society for victory in elections. The party is against the country’s concept of “everybody’s welfare, everyone’s contentment”. The Congress party ruled the country for a long period, yet it is getting restless to regain power and is spreading hatred among people, he said.

Even the older generation leaders in the Congress wonder at the state of affairs in the party and are helpless, he said. The Congress is today a big factory of hate campaigns. Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi realized this just after Independence and had therefore counseled that the party should be wound up.

“The Congress did not wind up but is bent upon finishing the nation. This calls for vigilance and being alert,” the prime minister said.

The Congress used the poor to serve its politics, while his government had successfully brought 25 crore people out of poverty, he said. Every policy of his government was targeted towards Viksit Bharat, he said and would benefit farmers and workers.

Mr Modi said he is confident that the people of Maharashtra will defeat all attempts to divide society and vote for BJP-Mahayuti in the coming polls.

Congratulating the people on the projects launched today, he said only a few days ago he had inaugurated projects worth Rs 30,000 crore in Thane and Mumbai. He was receiving congratulatory messages on the declaration of Marathi as a classical language, he said.