Bangalore, April 4: The BJP, which has sworn to make India Congress-free, has been bitten by the political equivalent of the Stockholm syndrome where the hostage empathises with the hostage-taker.

Narendra Modi's party today vowed to swap its pro-rich image for a pro-poor face - succumbing to the charms of the very model fashioned by the Congress that has been accused by the BJP of holding the country hostage all these years.

Leading the makeover talk, as the party ended its three-day national executive meeting, was a Prime Minister recently criticised for wearing a suit with his name scrawled all over and soliciting industry endorsement at global summits like Vibrant Gujarat.

The boot shifted to the other foot with Modi telling the national executive today that the UPA worked for the rich in the past 10 years.

At today's discussions on the political resolution, members apparently said that stressing the land bill's supposed benefits of irrigation, power, roads and rural infrastructure were of little use unless it struck a chord with the poor.

"The industrial corridors provided for in the bill will open up jobs in rural areas. In fact, they open up enormous scope for Dalits to get jobs," finance minister Arun Jaitley told reporters later.

In his valedictory speech, Modi stressed that Swachh Bharat would be linked to the state of health care for the poor.

Referring to Modi's speech, Jaitley said: "The Prime Minister gave several illustrations of how he was taking the government in that (pro-weaker-sections) direction."

Among the instances Modi cited of his government's pro-poor credentials were:

• The scaling down of gas prices to below $5 per million British thermal units (mBtu) against the UPA's rate of $8.4 per mBtu.

"On the eve of our government formation, a false campaign was launched that the Modi government would further hike gas prices. In fact it was the Congress that wanted to do it," Jaitley claimed.

• Modi said the Congress had given away coal blocks virtually for free to the wealthy, whereas his government had made the rich pay good money that was being used for tribal welfare.

• Taxing the "super-rich".

• The celebrations planned on April 14, birthday of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

• Making antyodaya (serving the last person in the queue) the focal point of next year's celebrations planned for the birth centenary of Deendayal Upadhyaya, an ideologue of BJP parent Jana Sangh. The BJP should celebrate 2016 as the "year for the welfare of the poor", Modi told the meeting.

Jaitley said the thrust of Modi's speech was on the growth model he envisaged for India. "It's a model in which the economy should give the benefits of an enriched economy, and the benefits must percolate to the poor both by way of jobs and by way of poverty alleviation programmes that the additional resources of the state will provide for," the finance minister said.

Modi's template seemed to mirror the welfare model the Congress had followed for decades, albeit with tweaks after economic liberalisation.

A perception exists that since coming to power at the Centre, the Modi government's actions have made it look like UPA III. Jaitley's budget speech also had sounded like a UPA themesong.

Hardly any party in India ever tires of proclaiming how pro-poor it is. Even the Swatantra Party, the now-defunct outfit that was packed with zamindars and erstwhile princes, had said in its principles that "priority must be assigned to the basic needs of the people, namely, food, water, housing and clothing".

The failure to implement policies that would have helped create the wealth to ensure basic amenities and the occasional renewal of the pro-poor self-certification by most parties carry a ring of the "lady doth protest too much".

In private conversations, Modi and his aides have sought to create an impression that his economic worldview differs from the Congress's in shunning populism, doles and "excessive" subsidies.

Underlying the subtle change in Modi's approach has been a general feeling in the BJP that to rid India of the Congress, it needs to imbibe those features of the rival that have given it the image of a banyan tree with room for everyone in its shade.