Criticising the ruling BJP for wasting money on grand functions All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesman and senior Congress leader Shanktisinh Gohil said that Sardar Patel dedicated whole of his life for the farmers, but in his home-state Gujarat peasants were not getting adequate irrigation water and electricity. Even farmers were not given payment of crop insurance, said Gohil claiming that the statue would have been completed with the iron collected from farmers across the nation without spending money from government’s exchequer but the BJP ruled state government preferred to take assistance of China.

Terming Sardar Patel as Congressman, he said that his party would never indulge in negative politics by using Sardar’s name to create vote bank. He went on to say that Congress wouldn’t oppose the Statue project the way it is opposing Rafale deal.

Gujarat BJP spokesman Bharat Pandya said that Congress party never recognise the immense work done by Sardar Patel for the unification of India post-Independence. Pandya said that those opposing the Statue project were puppets of Congress party including that of Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP). Congress had unnecessarily created controversy over the made in China issue as very little material imported from China was used in the making of the tallest statue.

Known critic of PM Modi and former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela too jumped into blame game by terming the project as marketing gimmick. Vaghela mocked at BJP saying that unite CBI and RBI before talking about anything else. Sardar was a simple man, but Rs 3,000 crore public money wasted for unproductive purpose at a time when Gujarat is under the mammoth debt of Rs 2,50,000 crore.