Modi speaks language of money in western UP

"Does Laxmi come riding on a bicycle (the election symbol of the Samajwadi party)? Does she ride an elephant (the symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party)?" he asked at a rally as part of his tour of western UP. "No", he said answering his own question, "She comes seated on a lotus. So, if you want Laxmi (rubbing index finger with thumb, the age-old gesture signifying money), you must vote the lotus."

The crowd just loved it. Although there were only about 5,000 people in Meerut's Gymkhana Park, a small meeting by any standards (especially when just a day before, more than 100,000 people had thronged to a Samajwadi Party meeting that Sanjay Dutt [ Images ] addressed with Amar Singh [ Images ]), the crowd roared when Modi critiqued Home Minister P Chidambaram [ Images ].

As elsewhere, in Meerut too Modi was all drama. "Laxmi is not safe. Look what they've done to our country", he said. "People fired at Mumbai's [ Images ] heart. And what did the home minister do? Pakistan was the one that fired the shot -- and the home minister went to America, a box of documents on his head.

Jibes at vote-bank politics in a region where Muslims are both affluent and growing in numbers because of Bangladeshi influx, were aplenty. "I went to Assam. Gujarat shares a border with Pakistan. Assam shares a border with Bangaldesh. In Assam, Muslims came to me to tell: Stop Bangladeshis from coming to India [ Images ]. I asked why. They said Bangladeshi labour is undercutting us, taking away our jobs. I said: Pakistan is my lot, Bangladesh is yours."