Rahul Gandhi addressed his first press conference as Congress president, after being elected unopposed to the post on Monday, in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, last day of campaigning for the second and final phase of Gujarat Assembly elections. He said the party was confident of winning the polls.
Mahesh Langa reports from the venue:
Referring to suspended party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Gandhi said he had made his position clear. "We took action against him. But what Modi ii has been saying about Dr. Manmohan Singh is also not acceptable. As Congress president, my priority will be to strengthen the party and you will see that in Gujarat."
Mr. Gandhi asserted that he wanted to change the political discourse as it had become "nasty and ugly." The BJP's campaign had shifted the focus on its opponents.
"Why can't I visit temples?" asked Mr. Gandhi on being asked about his temple visits. "It's the BJP's story that I visited temples in Gujarat only. But in fact, I visited Kedarnath temple. Is that in Gujarat? It's in Uttarakhand."
He said, "Whenever I went to a temple I just prayed for a golden future for the people of Gujarat, a better development here. Is it wrong to go to a temple? Normally we hold public meetings, but this time we held yatras and in the course of yatras, I visited temples."
Detailing the Congress' vision for Gujarat, he said that the development of Gujarat had been "one-sided."
"90% of schools and colleges have been privatised," he said. "Now, the Prime Minister no longer talks about corruption or minimum support price to farmers. We are confident that we will win the Gujarat polls. We will do balanced development against the BJP's one-sided development. Irrational economic policies of the BJP government has damaged Gujarat. We will abolish contract labour, fixed pay system in Gujarat. We will never take any decision unilaterally in Gujarat."
Mr. Gandhi stated that election is "won on narrative. Those who don't change their narrative win the polls. If you see, the BJP in Gujarat kept changing the narrative but failed."
The State have realised that the BJP is "hollow," he said and raised a query about job creation. "What has been done in 22 years in Gujarat? Are there doctors in hospitals in Gujarat? Are there jobs in Gujarat? Small and medium enterprises are job creators but they get no support from the government."
He added that "the Congress is fighting the polls as a united force."
