Palampur/Mandi, April 29
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a passionate appeal to voters to ensure his party's victory on 300 Lok Sabha seats and wooed youth, local residents and ex-servicemen at rallies in Palampur, Mandi and Solan.

Trying to strike an emotional chord, he repeatedly used Kargil hero Vikram Batra’s quote ‘yeh dil maange more’ and sparked a controversy, with Batra's parents raising objections.

Batra, who fought the 1999 Kargil war, was awarded Param Vir Chakra (PVC), the highest military honour, posthumously. He also referred to Major Somnath Sharma, the first PVC recipient, and lauded the sacrifices made by soldiers from the state. At his first rally in Kangra’s Palampur town, the hometown of Capt Batra, Modi said, “When we take the name of Maj Somnath

Sharma (the first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, awarded posthumously for his bravery in the November 1947 Kashmir operations) and Vikram Batra, we feel proud. Our mind says: ‘Yeh dil maange more’.”

At Mandi, Modi urged voters to give all the four seats to the party so it could achieve its target of 300 seats. "Today, I ask you to make the lotus win 300 seats because 'yeh dil maange more' just like Vikram Batra, who gave his life for the country in the Kargil War, using the same line.”

(Inputs Lalit Mohan & Dharam Prakash Gupta)