Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday, kept at his aggressive stance against the BJP, accusing the party of plagiarising the Congress manifesto and continuing direct attacks on its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
At a public meeting in support of Congress candidate Rajbala Ola in Jhunjhunu, Mr. Gandhi said the BJP’s election manifesto was simply a copy of the Congress’.
“Six months ago, we [the Congress] started work on our manifesto. We went to the poor, the farmers ... what did the BJP do? They removed the Congress’ Hand symbol and pasted its Lotus symbol ... they have promised right to health ... in Rajasthan, they have stopped giving out free medicines under a scheme started by the previous Congress government and now they claim they will implement it nationally,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi said the scheme would be implemented nationally if the Congress came to power.
Accompanied by Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot, State election in-charge Kumari Selja and former State Congress chief Chandrabhan, Mr. Gandhi struck a chord with the audience with his new style laced with wit, humour and sarcasm in equal measure.
He continued his attack on Mr. Modi over the latter’s statement about being a “chowkidar” (security guard) for the country. “He wants to become ‘chowkidar’ of Hindustan; he says give me the keys to Hindustan’s treasury. Let me tell you, sometimes ‘chowkidar’ also steals. The difference is we want to make you [people] the chowkidar; give the keys to crores of Indians,” Mr. Gandhi said.
