(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his re-election campaign Saturday, saying he had “miles to go” before his vision for a new India is completed as he sought support to ensure his administration returns to office for a second term.
Opposition parties are cobbling together an alliance because they are threatened by the strength of the government, Modi told members of his Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi. He was referring to two powerful regional parties which announced hours earlier that they will fight parliamentary elections together in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.
“We need to take India to new heights,” Modi said, asking BJP workers to ensure the party’s victory in elections due by May so that his government stays in power “for the coming five years.”
An alliance of opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh represents the biggest electoral threat to BJP, which won 71 parliamentary seats in that state in the 2014 national elections, significantly contributing to Modi’s thumping majority in the lower house of parliament. It is also a setback for the opposition Congress party, which is trying to forge an alliance with regional parties to take on the BJP.
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