Both change their face from time to time, says Cong president
A day after Rahul Gandhi’s Bihar campaign, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday addressed her first poll rally in the State and slammed both BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for being pseudo secular. She also emphatically said that the UPA Government has fulfilled all its promises made during the last two parliamentary polls.
Kuch log mukhauta pehan kar secularism ka messiah banne ki koshish kar rahe hain…woh aapke saathi nahi hai..kursi ke saathi hain, satta ke saathi hain, charged Sonia while making obvious references to both Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar. She also blamed them, though without taking their names, for changing their face from time to time.
While addressing people at Sasaram from where lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is a Congress candidate, Sonia further declared that the country is currently passing through an examination and “those changing faces from time to time could not be your true friends”.
“They shield their failures while blaming the Congress party but, in fact, they throw dust in the eyes of the people only for the sake of power and chair”, she said in her about 16 minute speech.
Jo loktantra ko muthi mein karna chahte hon… sab woh kare jo yeh kahen… kya aise logon per vishwas karna chahiyeIJ, asked Sonia while responding herself quickly: bilkul nahi.
While targeting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, the Congress president said that some people who till the other day were with the BJP but now called them messiah of secularism and they blame the Congress party for their failures.
“UPA sarkar ne pichale 10-salon mein Bihar ke vikas ke liye pura yogdan diya, khub rashi di per uska upyog hua ki nahi yeh mujhse behtar aap jante hain,” she said.Earlier, on Wednesday Nitish Kumar in one of his poll rallies in Nawada had blamed the Congress for not giving special status to Bihar for its development.
like her son Rahul Gandhi, Sonia too counted all the achievements of the UPA under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While referring to MNREGA, RTI, food security law and land acquisition law. She also defended Meira Kumar for her hectic and busy role as lok Sabha Speaker. and yet carrying out her job to take forward the legacy of her father Babu Jagjivan Ram in her constituency.
“I’m happy that Meira Kumar has carried forward the legacy of Babu Jagjivan Ram and also been able to perform her duty well. It was the Congress party which had made Meira Kumar the first woman lok Sabha Speaker”, she said emphatically.
Earlier, the BJP leaders had attacked Meira Kumar for neglect and under-development of her constituency as “being lok Sabha Speaker she was left with little time to look after Sasaram”.
local people said that development has been the biggest issue in Sasaram from where Meira Kumar has been winning lS poll for the last two terms.
But, others also believe that Sasaram is the only Parliamentary constituency in Bihar where Congress Party could hope to hit a hat-trick. Meira Kumar is pitted against Chhedi Paswan of BJP who recently had deserted JD-U to join BJP and former IAS officer K P Ramaiah as JD-U candidate in the fray.
Chhedi Paswan, significantly, had defeated Meira Kumar twice in 1989 and 1991 as Janata Dal candidate. He recently was suspended from the JD-U after he met the BJP PM nominee Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad on September 29 last year.
Earlier, Meira Kumar’s niece Madhavi Kirti too had come to file her nomination papers on BSP ticket but her papers were rejected as she failed to deposit the party symbol. She later, blamed Meira Kumar for conspiring with the BSP leaders against her. Kirti is daughter of Meira Kumar’s brother Suresh Ram.