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Bitten in UP, Cong shy of Rahul vs Modi in Gujarat
Taking a lesson from Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll debacle, the Congress has decided not to field party general secretary Rahul Gandhi to lead the campaign in Gujarat elections later this year as it does not want Chief Minister Narendra Modi to turn polls into a fight between him and Rahul or Gujarat Government and the Centre.
Taking a cue from the success of Samajwadi Party in UP, the Congress has this time gone overboard in promising land, flats to laptops to the voters. But is wary of fielding Rahul, who had earlier received a lot of flak after dismal results despite extensive campaigning in UP.
Asked whether Rahul will campaign in Gujarat, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said that every election is fought on local issues and the Congress’ Gujarat unit is capable of contesting the elections and countering Modi’s falsehood.
Another Congress leader on condition of anonymity said that Modi’s game plan is to create controversy, which was evident from his comments terming Congress as cancer and demanding SIT probe against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
However, the Congress does not want to allow him to create a fresh controversy so it will keep the campaign low profile. Also Rahul like other senior leaders will visit the State, but will not lead the campaigning.
Retaliating to Modi’s attack against the Congress, Tewari reminded him of the graft allegations made against his Government recently. On June 19 this year, a delegation of Congress MPs had met the Chief Vigilance Commissioner and submitted him a 750-page document of 17 scams estimated to be of worth Rs 1.17 lakh crore in Gujarat, he pointed out and said, “I want to ask the Gujarat Chief Minister whether he is ready for SIT probe in these allegations. Is this Gujarat model, which he is boasting of.”
There is one real Gujarat, which people of the State are bearing with while there is another, which is a falsehood that the Gujarat Chief Minister and the BJP are serving to people, he said.
“Had everything been so good in Gujarat, why former BJP Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel would have been opposing Modi? Patel says that there is dictatorship in Gujarat and nobody can air his views freely there,” Tewari said.
Meanwhile, the party tried to downplay a critical article in Economist against Rahul with Tewari saying that there is no need to comment on such articles coming in foreign media. He also disapproved of the government and PMO earlier giving too much importance to Washington Post report against the PM.
Taking a lesson from Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll debacle, the Congress has decided not to field party general secretary Rahul Gandhi to lead the campaign in Gujarat elections later this year as it does not want Chief Minister Narendra Modi to turn polls into a fight between him and Rahul or Gujarat Government and the Centre.
Taking a cue from the success of Samajwadi Party in UP, the Congress has this time gone overboard in promising land, flats to laptops to the voters. But is wary of fielding Rahul, who had earlier received a lot of flak after dismal results despite extensive campaigning in UP.
Asked whether Rahul will campaign in Gujarat, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said that every election is fought on local issues and the Congress’ Gujarat unit is capable of contesting the elections and countering Modi’s falsehood.
Another Congress leader on condition of anonymity said that Modi’s game plan is to create controversy, which was evident from his comments terming Congress as cancer and demanding SIT probe against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
However, the Congress does not want to allow him to create a fresh controversy so it will keep the campaign low profile. Also Rahul like other senior leaders will visit the State, but will not lead the campaigning.
Retaliating to Modi’s attack against the Congress, Tewari reminded him of the graft allegations made against his Government recently. On June 19 this year, a delegation of Congress MPs had met the Chief Vigilance Commissioner and submitted him a 750-page document of 17 scams estimated to be of worth Rs 1.17 lakh crore in Gujarat, he pointed out and said, “I want to ask the Gujarat Chief Minister whether he is ready for SIT probe in these allegations. Is this Gujarat model, which he is boasting of.”
There is one real Gujarat, which people of the State are bearing with while there is another, which is a falsehood that the Gujarat Chief Minister and the BJP are serving to people, he said.
“Had everything been so good in Gujarat, why former BJP Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel would have been opposing Modi? Patel says that there is dictatorship in Gujarat and nobody can air his views freely there,” Tewari said.
Meanwhile, the party tried to downplay a critical article in Economist against Rahul with Tewari saying that there is no need to comment on such articles coming in foreign media. He also disapproved of the government and PMO earlier giving too much importance to Washington Post report against the PM.
