Addressing an election meeting here in Bhiwani district — the stronghold of late Congress leader Bansi Lal — Congress President Sonia Gandhi kept up her attack on the BJP for being only “a party of the rich”. Ms. Gandhi told the crowd of 12,000 supporters gathered in the town’s grain market that the union government was weakening the Congress’ flagship schemes, namely the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employement Guarantee Scheme and the Land Acquisiton, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act.
“This is a gross injustice to the poor. Only people who don’t know where their next meal will come from, can understand what employment guarantee means,” she said in a short speech.
“Only time will tell what Mr. Modi gained or lost in America. One very wrong thing he did, for the benefit of U.S. pharmaceutical firms, is removing price control on medicines. Life-saving drugs will now be more expensive. Now they will shed false tears and use any tactic to fool you. Didn’t they promise you the stars before the Lok Sabha polls,” she said.
The BJP swept the Lok Sabha polls in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh with its candidate Dharamveer garnering almost forty percent of the votes. He defeated sitting Congress MP Shruti Choudhary who is former CM Bansi Lal’s granddaughter. She came third, after the Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Bahadur Singh.
Ms. Gandhi asked ex-servicemen, who are an influential community in the region, to reward the Congress for introducing the one rank-one pension scheme. “A victory for the Congress is a victory for the rights of the poor and will strengthen to social justice. Electing Congress for a third time will protect peasants and workers.”
Ms. Gandhi also addressed a rally in Bhrampuri, Maharashtra on Saturday. Campaigning ends on October 13. The war of words has intensified with Ms. Gandhi and PM Narendra Modi making direct attacks in their campaign speeches. The Congress has fashioned itself as the defender of the weaker sections while the BJP is harping on ‘misrule’ of the latter. Both parties are contending against the INLD which is putting up a tough fight in almost every seat making poll predictions dicey for pundits.
