Narendra Modi vs Congress: standard. Narendra Modi vs AAP: new.

Meerut, Uttar Pradesh –  Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party joined the Congress and the Samajwadi Party on Narendra Modi’s list of targets at an election rally in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday.

The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate attacked the month-old AAP government in Delhi on issues like the death of a student from Arunachal Pradesh and the alleged harassment of Ugandan women by law minister Somnath Bharti.

“We should try to make Delhi a global city. But in the last few days, the language and actions have brought disrepute, not only to the national capital but to the entire country… African women were ill-treated. Students from Manipur have been ill-treated. Now a student from Arunachal Pradesh was killed. This does not look good for the city,” Mr Modi said.

He did not name Mr Kejriwal or Mr Bharti, who had led a midnight raid last month targeting Nigerian and Ugandan nationals residing in south Delhi locality, but said these incidents showed that the AAP government was “careless about governance.”

Mr Modi said the death of the student Nido Taniam after a fight was a “shame,” and accused the Delhi government “of not being bothered.” He also held the Congress responsible. “In Delhi, a student from Arunachal Pradesh was killed under the nose of Sonia Gandhi… It is shameful,” he said.

He also took on the Congress president for her “zeher ki kheti” (or seeds of poison) remark. “Sonia Gandhi had told Rahul that power is poison. Who has been in power for most of the time during the last 60 years? In whose stomach has this poison gone? Who is spewing this poison? They (Congress) are the ones who sow the seeds of poison,” Mr Modi said.

Mrs Gandhi had said at a rally on Saturday, “I firmly believe that you will not allow those who sow the seeds of poison, who don’t believe in secular credentials and who play the politics of instigating violence to succeed,” alluding to Mr Modi, whom the ruling party accuses of being a divisive leader.

Mr Modi alleged that it is the Congress that is “a divisive party. They believe in divide and rule; they believe in vote-bank politics, of making communities fight.”