New Delhi/Ahmedabad: Gujarat turned into a battleground Wednesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Patidar leader Hardik Patel stepped up their campaign for the first leg of voting in the high-stakes poll-going state.
While the Prime Minister accused the Congress of being “feudal” and its vice-president of “propagating a grand stupid thought” in the name of GST, Mr Gandhi stuck to his anti-demonetisation and GST stance to woo voters and sought to make the state’s ruling BJP accountable for its promises in the last polls. Hardik Patel, on the other hand, continued to breathe fire against BJP.
Continuing his attack on the Congress and its vice-chief for calling GST “Gabbar Singh Tax”, the Prime Minister said those who had looted the country could only think of dacoits.
He also took a jibe to counter Mr Gandhi’s remark when he called the Congress leader a “new economist” who was propagating a “grand stupid thought” in the name of GST, telling people that they will slash all tax rates and make it 18 per cent.
In a dig at Mr Gandhi over his visit to the Somnath Temple, Mr Modi said “our first PM (Jawaharlal Nehru) was not happy with the idea of a temple being built there”, He also brought up Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, the late Indira Gandhi. Recalling the Macchu dam flood tragedy of 1979 in Morbi,the prime minister said he had spent one month working in the town after the disaster as an RSS and Jan Sangh worker.
“I remember Indira Gandhi had come here and Chitralekha (a local magazine) had printed her photo with a handkerchief over her nose, trying to avoid the stench, while another photo on the same front page had RSS workers carrying dead bodies,” he said.
Stepping up his offensive against the PM, Mr Gandhi sought to make the state’s ruling BJP accountable for its promises in the last election and also brought up the BJP’s record over its 22-year rule in Gujarat, and said that people were demanding answers. “22 saalon ka hisaab, Gujarat mange jawaab (Gujarat demands answers for 22 years of BJP rule),” Mr Gandhi tweeted.
Later, addressing a rally at Visavadar in Junagadh, Mr Gandhi referred to the 2015 quota agitation in which 14 members of the Patidar community were killed in police firing, and said if anyone raises his voice he either gets beaten up or has to face bullets. Visavdar is a Patidar-dominated constituency in the politically crucial Saurashtra region.
The Congress leader also raked up the Rafale deal and sought to know if due procedures were followed before formalising the deal with France last year for procuring the fighter jets.
Hardik Patel interacted mainly with farmers and locals in Morbi, where he attacked the BJP for being insensitive towards the woes of farmers and small traders.
Blaming the Congress for taking credit for minor schemes in the state, like providing hand pumps, Mr Modi said BJP rule had brought in major works like the Narmada project.
