Cong strategy shift: Attack PM by name

NEW DELHI: In his last two major political speeches, Congress president Rahul Gandhi named and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for attack 99 times over a stretch of 65 minutes.

The aggression with which Gandhi assailed Modi personally, Congress leaders say, reflects a conscious shift in strategy. Until a year ago, the Congress had treaded cautiously in referring to Modi.

The party has now decided on a gloves-are-off approach, having concluded that the 2019 general election must be projected as a Modi vs Gandhi contest, something it had hitherto shied away from.

At the same time, the opposition party is focusing the narrative on corruption, a plank on which Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rode to victory over the Congress-led United Progressive (UPA) in 2014.

In the last two rallies in Delhi, Gandhi has been unrelenting in attacking Modi.

Launching a ‘Save the Constitution’ campaign from New Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium on April 23, Gandhi mentioned Modi by name 47 times in a 30-minute speech, attacking him on a range of issues, from his “silence” on the issue of corruption to the alleged atrocities committed on Dalits, women and minorities. Alliance

He followed it up at the ‘Jan Aakrosh’ (public anger) rally in Ramlila Maidan on April 29. Gandhi spoke for nearly 35 minutes and mentioned Modi 52 times, targeting him for his silence over alleged corruption, for the failure to mention last year’s Doklam standoff in his informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, for unkept pre-poll promises and recent incidents of rape in different parts of the country, including Unnao and Kathua.