Maintaining that Gujarat’s development, much touted by its Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime-ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, was confined to the State’s cities and urban areas, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday said Mr. Modi was not “Prime Minister material”. “Gujarat’s development is limited to cities like Ahmedabad and Baroda. Go to villages, there is no social security, no development,” said Mr. Gehlot, speaking to journalists after releasing the Congress manifesto here.Answering a question, Mr. Gehlot said Gujarat, as opposed to Rajasthan, had always been a developed State and Mr. Modi had had little to do with its progress. “Gujarat has been an industrialised State since before Independence... Rajasthan has managed to become a model State under Congress rule... Today 20 per cent of the country’s domestic oil production comes from Rajasthan... in the future we will be number one,” said Mr. Gehlot.
According to the Rajasthan CM, Mr. Modi’s vision for the country was based on a politics of ‘divide-and-rule’.
‘Erroneous statements’
“Not even a single Muslim candidate was fielded in the Gujarat assembly elections... Narendra Modi talks of a divided nation... The India he imagines is a broken one,” said Mr. Gehlot.
“Narendra Modi goes around the country making erroneous statements... Such a person is not PM material,” he said.
‘Modi markets himself’
“He [Modi] only knows how to market himself using his body language... Same is the case with Vasundhara Raje,” said the Rajasthan CM.
