Sitapur (UP), May 5 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said Muslims now understand that the Congress and INDIA bloc are using them as pawns, asserting that the community is also coming to the BJP after seeing the development done by it.

Addressing a rally in support of the BJP candidate in Dhaurahra, Modi also said that the poor and those belonging to the SC, ST and OBC communities have distanced themselves from the Congress and the opposition alliance, and come to the BJP.

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"Politics of appeasement has become compulsory for the existence of 'shehzade' of SP and Congress," he said in an apparent attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

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"Muslim community also understands that the Congress and INDI alliance have made them pawns," Modi, said adding that the Muslim community is also coming to the BJP after seeing the development done without any prejudice.

The PM was accompanied by Dhaurahra MP Rekha Verma, MP from Lakhimpur Ajay Mishra Teni, BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudary and party's candidate from Sitapur Rajesh Verma.

In Dhaurahra, the BJP has fielded incumbent Rekha Verma. She is pitted against Anand Bhadauriya of SP and Shyam Kishore Awasthi of BSP.

Polling in Dhaurahra is scheduled on May 13 in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)