All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary B.K. Hariprasad on Saturday ridiculed the “development claims” by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and said his own partymen would not allow him to occupy the top post.
At a ‘Meet-the-Press’ interaction organised by the Bangalore Reporters’ Guild here, Mr. Hariprasad said he (Mr. Modi) could not become the prime minister at all. All tall leaders in that party (BJP) had been sidelined and people in his own party would not allow him to grow. He had been harping on the “Gujarat model” of development. “But it is a fact that no development has happened during his tenure as the Chief Minister.”
‘People misled’Defending AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on the marital status of Mr. Modi, Mr. Hariprasad said what Mr. Gandhi said was not the question of Mr. Modi’s relationship with his wife, but a legal question that pertains to the BJP leader “hiding” information on his marital status while filing nomination during the last three elections. Mr. Modi had misled the people and the Election Commission, he alleged.
ManifestoAlleging that the BJP had rehashed the Congress manifesto and presented it as its own, Mr. Hariprasad said the BJP had literally copied programmes initiated by the Congress and “pasted” them in its manifesto by renaming them.
Dismissing queries pertaining to infighting in the Congress, he said in a democracy everyone had a right to speak. He said the State government, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, was doing well and that there were no differences among Congressmen in the State.