Modi, Rahul lock horns in MP

CAMPAIGN TRAIL PM says Cong has no issues and is targeting his mother, Gandhi says Modi lies, betrayed country

BHOPAL: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi faced off on Saturday in separate rallies in Madhya Pradesh, where their parties are locked in a close contest for the November 28 assembly elections.

Modi blamed the Congress for an ongoing agricultural crisis and said if Vallabhbhai Patel, who was India’s first home minister, had become the nation’s first prime minister, farmers would have been prosperous. The Bharatiya Janata Pary (BJP) has criticised India’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, and lionised Patel, a 182metre-tall statue of whom was inaugurated on October 31.

“Farmers are suffering due to the wrong policies of the Congress governments... But they would not have... had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel been the country’s first prime minister,” Modi said in Mandsaur, which turned into the epicentre of the farm crisis after six protesting farmers were killed in police firing last year.

The BJP has been ruling Madhya Pradesh for the past 15 years.

Modi also sought to connect with the influential Patidars, who formed a bulk of the farmers killed last year, by inviting them to visit the statue of Patel (called the Statue of Unity).

In another rally held earlier in the day in Chhatarpur, Modi alleged that the “arrogant” Congress was “abusing” his mother, referring to a comment by Congress leader Raj Babbar who compared the falling value of the Indian rupee with the age of Modi’s mother Hiraben at a campaign rally on Thursday while recalling Modi’s similar remark referring to former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s age with the rupee’s falling value.

He accused the Congress of resorting to personal attacks because it had run out of issues. “The Congress cannot compete with Modi. For the past 17-18 years I have challenged (the Congress) and defeated them, so out of frustration they have dragged my mother’s name. When people do not have issues, do not have the truth with them, they resort to calling names,” he said.

“I am willing to take on the Congress for a discussion on the work done by four generations of Congressmen and my, a Chaiwala (tea seller)’s, in four years.” He also sought to pick holes in the Congress’ promise of waiving farmers’ loan if it came to power in the state, saying it did not fulfil a similar promise in Karnataka.

He also accused the Congress’s state president Kamal Nath of indulging in what he called was “minority appeasement”.

Rahul Gandhi, speaking at a rally in Sagar, said the PM has “betrayed” the country. “Modiji has betrayed the people on his promise of providing jobs to two crore people every year and depositing ~15 lakh cash into their accounts by bringing (back) black money stashed abroad,” Gandhi said, referring to Modi’s two poll promises made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Gandhi said Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spoke with decency, but Modi lacked it. “When you hear Modi’s speech, he uses wrong words and speaks with hatred... Modi also speaks lies. The faith reposed by the people and youth in him has broken. Now, when Modi comes, people say he will speak lies,” Gandhi said.

“He (Modi) speaks with hatred about me and my family, but Shivraj uses decent language. Modi doesn’t know how to speak decently, but Rahul Gandhi will always maintain decency when speaking (about Modi),” he said.

Congress spokesperson Durgesh Sharma said Modi was misleading the nation. “The country chose Jawaharlal Nehru as the first prime minister and he, along with Sardar Patel, worked for the farmers. They built dams and set up agriculture universities. BJP has not done even 1% of what the Congress did for the farmers.”

BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said the people did not believe what Gandhi was saying, adding that the people loved and admired both Modi and Chouhan. NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN, Madhya Pradesh chief minister YOGI ADITYANATH,

Uttar Pradesh chief minister JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA,

MP campaign committee chief