In a veiled attack on Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for choosing the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi without naming her on Sunday said those who cannot win an election have taken the Rajya Sabha route to Parliament. Addressing a public meeting in Rajasthan’s Jalore, Modi said, “Jo log chunav nahi lad sakte, jeet sakte (those who can’t contest and win an election) fled the ground and took the Rajya Sabha route”.
Jalore will go to the election in the second phase on April 26. Modi also addressed a rally in Banswara in support of BJP’s Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya. Former Congress president Sonia is among the MPs elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in February.
In a major decision, Sonia vacated her Raebareli seat citing her health condition. The Congress is yet to announce any candidate from Raebareli, and so is the BJP for the seat that will go to the polls on May 20.
Several Congress veterans have not been fielded in this Lok Sabha election, but the party has rejected suggestions that they were shying away from contesting. Congress first sent a leader from South (KC Venugopal) to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan; then Rajasthan helped former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“Manmohan was ill for a long time. But was he ever seen here in Rajasthan? Now Rajasthan has again come to Congress’s help. Another Congress leader (Sonia) has been elected from Rajasthan to the Rajya Sabha,” he said.
Modi said the country is punishing the Congress for its “sins” and the party that had once won 400 seats is unable to contest 300 seats in this Lok Sabha election.
“In the first phase of voting, half of Rajasthan has punished Congress. Rajasthan, which is full of patriotism, knows that Congress can never make India strong,” Modi said.
He said the country does not want the conditions which existed before 2014 to return. “The Congress has hollowed out the country by spreading termites of nepotism and corruption. And today, the country is angry with the Congress and is punishing it for these sins. The youths are so angry that they do not want to see the Congress’ face again.”
Modi was addressing the public meeting in Bhinmal in support of BJP candidate Lumbaram Choudhary.
“They have formed an opportunistic INDI Alliance, (it is like) a kite whose string has been cut before it could fly,” he said. Modi said it was an alliance only in name as its constituents were fighting against each other in many States.
“In this Lok Sabha election, there are twenty five per cent seats in the country where people of this alliance are busy finishing off each other, contesting elections against each other. “If there is so much fighting before the elections, then you can imagine how much more they will fight for the loot after the elections. Can we hand over such a big country to these people?” Modi alleged that the Congress, which ruled for 60 years, had deprived “our mothers and sisters” of even “small things like toilets, gas, electricity, water, bank accounts”.
Referring to the rule of the Congress-led UPA, PM Modi alleged that people used to threaten the weak Congress-led government and everyone was busy looting the country.
“No one cared about the prime minister. The government used to run with remote control. A leader of his own party calls a media meeting, tears up an ordinance passed by the cabinet and throws it away. Can the Congress party and its family, a symbol of instability, run the country?” Modi said.
Prime Minister Modi said the country does not want the conditions that existed before 2014 to return. He alleged that the previous Congress government in the state committed a scam in the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme and did not allow its work to be completed.
“Now our Bhajanlal Rajasthan government has come. It is also investigating the scam. If there was no Congress government here, by now we would have come very close to the target of providing water to every house.”
He said, “We have to take the development of Rajasthan and the country to new heights. I have set out with this resolve. We have to make India the third-largest economic power in the world. We have to make ‘Developed India-Developed Rajasthan’.”
“Modi has guaranteed that this son sitting in Delhi will bear the expenses of up to Rs 5 lakh for the treatment of elderly persons above 70 years of age in every family. “As a son, it is my responsibility to take care of my parents’ health,” he said There are 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan. The first phase of polling for 12 seats was held on April 19, while the remaining 13 will go to polls in the second phase on April 26. The BJP had swept the state in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
