Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday asked Bharatiya Janata Party workers to resolve to make Narendra Modi the prime minister again with a victory in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, PTI reported.

“I want to ask you to make a resolution to work with full conviction and strength so that in the coming elections, we once again form a BJP government with full majority and make Narendra Modi the prime minister again for doing justice to backward sections and making India prosperous, progressive, and powerful,” he said in Nagpur at the inauguration of the national convention of the party’s Scheduled Caste Morcha.

Gadkari alleged that the Congress had succeeded in creating a wrong perception that the BJP was a communal party, which represented only the upper castes.

“There is this theory in politics, either convince or confuse people. When you cannot convince, you start confusing,” he said. “Congress and those opposed to the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ideology created this misunderstanding [about the saffron party being anti-Dalit].”

Gadkari said that BJP governments have provided social honour to the Scheduled Caste community by raising memorials at various places that signified important milestones of BR Ambedkar’s life, The Indian Express reported. He added that the party had implemented a number of schemes to benefit the backward classes.

“The Opposition has campaigned against us calling us communal and anti-Dalit,” he said. “The time has come for us to counter this perception and once again re-elect the BJP with Narendra Modi as PM.”

Gadkari claimed that BJP’s might and good work had led to the Opposition uniting in a grand alliance. “It is not bad performance, but good work that invites more enemies,” he said. “The people who could not see eye to eye, who have lost ground, have come together.”

“Had the BJP not been strong, why would the nephew go to his aunt?” Gadkari asked, referring to Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav joining hands with Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh.