Bhubaneswar: Dubbing Narendra Modi as a promoter of Capitalists, CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat on Tuesday said the claim of BJP's prime ministerial candidate being a tea seller was aimed at capturing the votes of poor people.
"Modi has been the Chief Minister of Gujarat for at least 10 years. We never heard of him being a tea seller. After being projected as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, he has been claiming to be a tea seller," Karat said addressing a rally of tribals here.
While Modi claims to be one among the poor people, he has been instrumental in bulldozing tea stalls in Gujarat to create space for corporate houses. The Gujarat government doesn't have a single policy to promote the socio-economic development of tea sellers even as the state's Chief Minister claims to be one of them, Karat said.
"Modi has been doing this only to mislead people," the CPI(M) leader alleged.
Asking the tribals not to believe in either the Congress or the BJP, she said "people were fed up with the two national parties as they adopt the same policy. People now want an alternative policy for development."
Karat accused the two parties of evicting the poor from slums and hand over the land to real estate companies.
"The Gujarat government razed jhuggis (shanties) to make way for the corporate sector and didn't rehabilitate the displaced," she said adding, the Gujarat Chief Minister was trying hard to get a "makeover" from communalism by talking about his "poor background and backward class."
Asked about the proposed Third Front, Karat said "We are only talking about alternative policies and no Third Front."