Congress general secretary Dijgijay Singh demanded a law on the expenditure by the political parties while alleging that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had broke all the record of poll expenditure in the history of election in the country.
“Election Commission should made some law regarding maximum limit on the expenditure during the election as parties like BJP are misusing the relaxation,” alleged former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh while accusing BJP of hijacking the entire media through money and Corporate sector. Addressing a press conference here at Congress Party state head-quarter on Wednesday noon, Digvijay Singh said that the BJP was spending thousand of crores of rupees in campaigning and Congress was way behind it. “The corporate sector is pumping funds in favour of the BJP as they are unhappy with the Congress for not dancing to their tunes,” he claimed. Singh said when there was a limit of expenditure by a candidate then why not this can be done for political parties.
Singh said the ongoing elections are a battle between two ideologies. While the Congress wants to take all sections of the society — poor, tribals and minorities — with it by maintaining communal harmony, the other forces want to hand over the country to corporate houses, he said. They are also fighting the elections on money provided by the corporates, he alleged. Claiming that the Election Commission, which keeps an account of every table and chair of candidates, has overlooked this expenditure, Singh said the UPA would consider this when it comes to the power again. He claimed that Modi has captured BJP and RSS with the help of corporate houses and their money power, and has become larger than the party itself. “I must appreciate Rajnath Singh who has again become the (BJP) president after (Nitin) Gadkari... and now has become the most powerful one after Modi... All those close to Atal Bihari Vajpayee have been sidelined,” he said.
Claiming that the Gujarat model of BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi was a ‘bundle of lies’, he said Gujarat was on top in the country regarding debt, besides the state was also lagging behind in employment, infrastructure, investments, education and pollution. “Modi talks about development model of Gujarat, but in the 1995, the total debt in Gujrat was nil whereas today it has a debt of Rs 1.42 lakh crore... Although in terms of total amount it is less than that of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, it is very high in terms of per capita,” Singh told reporters here. Whether it is investment, production, education, health or employment, Gujarat is not number one in any indicator of development, he added. “As many as 20 officers of Gujarat are in jail... Convicted Babu Bokhiria and Purushottam Solanki, who is accused in a Rs 400-crore scam, are in the ministry,” Singh said, taking a dig at Modi’s slogan of good governance.
lauding his party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi, Singh said the latter’s admission that the UPA government made a few mistakes shows his “humanity”. “Which government does not falter... The government has made a few mistakes. Admitting this is Rahul’s humanity,” he said in a reply to a question. The Congress leader also sought apology from the RSS and BJP for raising up `NaMo’ and `Ghar Ghar Modi’ slogans saying that he hurts the sentiments of the Hindus.