In a scathing attack on BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader and Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane on Sunday said the Gujarat Chief Minister is a “liar” and “devoid of human values”.
“Modi is a person without humanity and we can see that from the 2002 Gujarat riots,” he told reporters in Sindhudurg. He did not even visit the family members of (former Congress MP) Ehsaan Jafri who was killed during the riots.
Mr. Rane’s son, sitting MP Nilesh Rane, is seeking re-election from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency of Konkan. “We will get more seats than the Mahayuti (the opposition alliance of Shiv Sena, BJP and three other parties in Maharashtra). There is no Modi wave in Maharashtra. He is a liar who has been now exposed by giving wrong figures on the development of Gujarat,” Mr. Rane said.
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Mr. Rane claimed that Gujarat lagged behind Maharashtra on economic indicators. “Maharashtra with investments of Rs. 14,73, 466 crore was leading Gujarat by more than Rs. 75,000 crore. Gujarat had investments of Rs. 13,98,247 crore,” he said.
Debt against GDP in Gujarat was at a precarious 26 per cent which could have serious implications for its economy, Mr. Rane said. “Post elections Gujarat will have no other option but to raise level of taxation as well as power tariffs. As opposed to this Maharashtra was better placed at 17 per cent debt to GDP ratio,” he said.
The Congress leader also sought to dismiss the hostility from local NCP leaders, including the MLA Deepak Kesarkar who has defied party president Sharad Pawar in opposing Mr. Rane. “It has always been Rane versus others during the elections,” he said.
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