Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Monday said Hyderabad and its twin city Secunderabad were sitting on a powder keg and that terrorists more dangerous than those in Kashmir reside here.

He alleged that any incident happening in Gujarat or Mumbai would have links with Hyderabad.

He was addressing an election meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Nizam College grounds here Monday night.

“I have told police officers of Andhra that Hyderabad and Secunderabad are sitting on a powder keg. Terrorists more dangerous than those in Kashmir live here,” he told the meeting.

Alleging that the Congress government was doing vote bank politics, he said it failed to identify the “anti-national forces”.

Modi wondered if Maoists, terrorists and Bangladeshi infiltrators will decide the future of the country. He condemned the demand by a central minister that the Bangladeshi infiltrators be given Indian citizenship.

The BJP leader came down heavily on the Congress-led UPA government for its soft approach in tackling terrorism and called upon people to defeat the Congress and its allies.

“We can tackle terrorism and Pakistan by paying back in their own coin. This government can’t tackle terrorism. It can’t even make a law to fight terror. How can one expect it to raise arms?” he said, ridiculing the government for going to the US to complain against Pakistan after terror attacks in Mumbai.

Terming the Congress as 125-year-old woman, he said she was only a burden on the country. “Only 30-year-old young BJP can give a bright future to this country.”

The Gujarat chief minister wondered why Congress leaders had lost their sleep over BJP leader L. K. Advani’s promise that if voted to power the BJP would bring back “black money” kept in foreign banks.

He alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was silent on a proposal at the recent G20 summit that sanctions should be imposed on the countries not giving details of the secret bank accounts.

Claiming the development achieved by Gujarat was an example, he pointed out that the Gujarat government (state-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation) found huge gas reserves on the shores of Andhra.

“The Andhra government was sleeping. Now they are requesting me to do something for their face saving,” he said, and assured people of Andhra Pradesh that they had as much right on these natural resources as Gujarat.

New Delhi, Mar 19 :The BJP denied tickets to two former Union ministers, who are known opponents of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, but gave the nod to Shatrughan Sinha, about whom there were frequent reports that he could switch loyalties to SP, to contest from Patna Sahib.

Kanshiram Rana and Vallabhai Kataria, who are also sitting MPs, did not figure in the list of party candidates from Gujarat for the Lok Sabha elections.The Central Election Committee (CEC) which met in New Delhi on Tuesday finalised candidates for eight states in which tickets were denied to ten sitting MPs in Gujarat.

Patna Sahib was a seat for which party’s spokesman Ravi Shanker Prasad had reportedly made strong claims.

The candidates declared on Tuesday by BJP’s Central Election Committee were for Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The candidates for Gujarat included Kirit Solanki(Ahmedabad-West) and Jaishreeben Patel(Mehasana). Even a sitting MLA of Congress who defected to BJP on Monday Bhavsingh Rathor(Patan) got the nod.

Of the 21 seats announced by the party for Gujarat today, 19 were new faces except for two sitting MPs Mansukhbai Vasava(Bharuch) and Harin Pathak(Ahmedabad-East).

The prominent among candidates from Bihar included Rajiv Pratap Rudy(Saran) and Shahnawaz Hussain(Bhagalpur) apart from Sinha.

Party vice-president Gopinath Munde will be the candidate from Beed(Maharashtra) while Subhash Deshmukh(Madha) would be facing NCP chief and Union minister Sharad Pawar.

Former Union minister Ram Naik would be contesting Mumbai-North. He was defeated from the same seat last year by Congress candidate and cinestar Govinda.

The party on Tuesday also announced its 57 candidates for Andhra Pradesh assembly polls.

With the 21 candidates declared on Tuesday, BJP has so far declared candidates for 22 seats including its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani from Gandhinagar.

Advani has said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was not his "heir apparent" although he may be party’s most popular leader right now.

Asked by a magazine in an interview whether Modi was "standing above the other leaders of the second generation in the BJP" and if he was "heir apparent", Advani replied, "no, I would not say so. Specially when we have string of Chief Ministers who have been performing so well."

To a question as to whether the Gujarat Chief Minister was the most popular leader after him, Advani replied,"why after me? He may be the most popular leader right now."

82-year-old Advani also sought to downplay the "youth card" saying, "I do not attach much importance to the so-called youth card. I don’t think age is a handicap (to being in politics) as long as one is fit. There is experience you bring with age."

SURAT/NEW DELHI: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Saturday urged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to refrain from commenting on the state's economic initiatives but the Congress retorted by terming Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pro-corporate, saying it had little concern for the masses.

"Some people come from Delhi and give us advice on the Tata Nano project without full information," Modi said in Surat.

He was reacting to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Gujarat government. Gandhi, while visiting Surat Feb 14, had said the Modi government had doled out special favours to Tata Motors for shifting its small car Nano project from West Bengal to Sanand.

In reply, the Congress said the basic problem with the BJP is its ideology which is pro-corporate and has nothing to do with the masses.

"It is the fault of the party ideology which supports the corporate world. It is extremely sad that in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, the corporate world is favoured who are earning crores of rupees," Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh said in New Delhi.

"The Modi government has nothing to do with medium and small scale industries," he added.

However, the chief minister faulted the Congress-led central government for not doing enough for workers in the diamond polishing units, most of which in India are based in Surat, who have lost their jobs due to the global economic meltdown.

"When it is a question of providing alternative employment to recession-hit diamond workers the central government should refrain from playing politics
. The state government is in contact with diamond traders of Canada so that the workers may get some work," he said at a public meeting.

Modi accused the central government of "perpetrating injustice on the state".

"The government in Delhi is openly anti-Gujarat. It is doing nothing but just throwing spanner in the works of developmental projects that the state government has undertaken," he said.

Surat, Feb 21 : In what could turn out to be face-off between the two heavyweights of Indian politics, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday slammed AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi for his remarks calling the Gujarat government 'pro-rich'.

“None can stop Nano…Congress cannot stop Nano,” Modi said. Modi was speaking in a pre-election rally at Surat where he criticised Rahul for making a statement referring to Tata’s Nano project being shifted into the state from West Bengal.

In a statement, Rahul had talked about job losses in the diamond industry in Gujarat, on one hand, and the state government passing on sops to the big industries on the other.

Reacting to Modi’s comment, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said, “It is extremely unfortunate that on Gandhi’s land who always favoured mass production common men are languishing and big industrialists are flourishing. I am not accusing Modi for this because this is what the ideology of BJP is. The problem is with their ideology.”