Apparently dispirited with the NaMo wave across the country, Congress president Sonia Gandhi made an indirect attack on BJP’s prime ministerial candidate at Ramgarh, about 45 kms from Ranchi on Friday. Without uttering Modi’s name Sonia said that situation had come to a level as if one would get the PM post by telling most number of lies.
Interestingly, Sonia’s much awaited rally at Ramgarh, the first in Jharkhand, drastically failed to lure the rural voters as the rally managers could not manage to gather even half of the crowd compared to the party’s chief poll campaigner Rahul Gandhi’s cancelled rally in Gumla on April 1.The Congress president reached the rally venue about an hour late and finding a thin crowd finished her speech in 12 minutes.
“They (the Opposition) say that they can do magic in a day. It seems the situation has come to a level where one may become the Prime Minister of the country by telling the most lies. And, there could be people who go to that extreme levels to grab the chair,” said Sonia said addressing the rally at Ramgarh under Hazaribagh constituency, while seeking votes for party nominee Saurav Narayan Singh.
Sonia also made the people shout “Jai Hind” slogan from the dais and before leaving the venue she came down to the D area after the speech and shook hands with people.
She told the gathering that her party did not lie to the people of the nation. “The UPA has fulfilled its promises it made during last elections. This will continue and we will keep fulfilling our promises after 2014 polls also,” she added.
Cornered by the BJP for diminishing the Prime Minister’s office (PMO), Sonia also patted the back of Manmohan Singh and his team as she said that under his leadership the party had successfully implemented various development schemes for the welfare of the people.
“The UPA enacted the Food Security Act that is unique and no country has this kind of legislation. The UPA has done a lot for the poor, women and minorities. Right to Education Act, the Forest Rights Act and the MGNREGA were also brought by the UPA and all these are helpful to generate employment and safeguard interests of the marginalised sections of society,” she said.
Sonia also talked about violence in her address without mentioning whether she was talking about Maoist related violence or violence by religious groups.“We believe in brotherhood and communal harmony. Our party believes in uniting and not dividing the nation. Violence of any kind is threat to our society and people, who were associated with violence in the past, must return to the mainstream society,” she said.
Talking about the plight of coal belt labourers, the Congress president said that her party had done a lot for improving the lives of people in the coal region. She referred to the work done by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when she had nationalised the coal companies.