As campaigning for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly election ends on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi exchanged barbs and traded charges in their last frenetic lap of electioneering in the PM’s home State.
On Monday, Mr. Gandhi asked the Prime Minister to talk about Gujarat in his election speeches.
“The Prime Minister talks sometimes about Pakistan and sometimes about China and Japan. Modiji, this is the election for the future of Gujarat. Talk something about Gujarat too,” Mr. Gandhi said, addressing farmers in North Gujarat.
Mr. Gandhi addressed four rallies in the region, where voting will be held on December 14.
Accusing Mr. Modi of maintaining silence over the development of Gujarat and the BJP’s performance during its 22 years at the helm in the State, Mr. Gandhi said that despite it being election time in Gujarat the Prime Minister is not talking about the BJP government’s scorecard.
Changing themes
Mr. Gandhi said that the BJP kept changing the election theme from Narmada to OBC to China and Pakistan.
On his part, the Prime Minister slammed the Congress president-elect for his taunts on “crony capitalism” and listed numerous schemes and initiatives he had launched first as Gujarat CM and then as PM after the 2014 national polls.
“You have been spreading lies in the State about our government and think everyone is a fool to believe you. I started Krishi Rath to educate the farmers of Gujarat. Was it for Adanis,” the PM asked, in a strong reaction to the Congress leader’s barbs about his government working for a handful of corporates and industrialists.
Picking another scheme he had launched in Gujarat to promote girl child education, Mr. Modi asked, “Was it for the daughters of Ambanis that I was begging in villages, pleading with people to send their daughters to schools.”
This was for the first time that the Prime Minister was hitting back so strongly to Mr. Gandhi’s questions, and that too, just two days before the second phase voting to be held for 93 Assembly constituencies.
