It is time Karnataka said goodbye to the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at an election rally in Bangarpet, near Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
Mr. Modi lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi after the latter publicly declared his prime ministerial ambition, and wondered whether the country will ever accept such an “immature and naamdar [famous]” leader for the post.
“The naamdar who does not have confidence in his alliance partners... who doesn’t care for the Congress’ internal democracy, whose arrogance has reached cloud seven, and is declaring himself that he would be the prime minister in 2019. ....will the country ever accept such an immature naamdar leader?” said Mr. Modi.
On Tuesday Mr. Gandhi said he was ready to occupy the prime minister’s post if his party emerged as the “biggest” party in the next Lok Sabha election.
“Yesterday in Karnataka and India’s politics something happened. All of a sudden one person came and he declared..… did not care about others who are standing in the line. Did not care about other coalition partners. There are leaders waiting for 40 years.… he came all of a sudden and placed his bucket, and said I will become the prime minister,” Mr. Modi said.
'Is it a reflection of Rahul Gandhi's arrogance,' asks Modi
The Prime Minister asked the gathering if it was not a reflection of the Congress president’s “arrogance”. He also wanted to know whether it did not show the state of internal democracy in the Congress.
Speaking about attempts to forge an anti-BJP front, Mr. Modi said, “big, big meetings are happening, big, big stalwarts are meeting” to remove him from power, but keeping them all in the dark Mr. Gandhi declared he will be the prime minister. “Doesn’t this show the level of no-confidence within the [proposed] coalition” he asked.
Mr. Modi termed the Congress a “deal party”. He said that during Manmohan Singh’s tenure as the Prime Minister, the remote control of the government was with former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, but in the four years of his (Mr. Modi's ) rule, it was with the people.
“Congress culture, communalism, casteism, crime, corruption and contract system” were the six Cs “destroying” Karnataka’s future.
