Rahul ‘helped’ Modi win, says Raj

Thane, Oct. 28: (PTI) Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has said that half the credit for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in the last Lok Sabha polls goes to Rahul Gandhi as his mocking the then Gujarat chief minister did not go down well with voters.

Mr Thackeray, however, said that current trends and reports indicate that the ruling BJP could lose the upcoming Assembly election in Gujarat.

“Fifty per cent credit for Narendra Modi’s victory in the 2014 general elections goes to Congress vice-president Rahul 50% cent credit for Modi’s victory in the 2014 general elections goes to Rahul Gandhi Gandhi. The way he mocked Modi during the campaign, helped the latter win the polls,” Mr Thackeray told reporters at Kalyan near here on Friday night.

Of the rest, 15 per cent was due to the social media, around 10-20 per cent credit would go to the BJP workers and also the RSS and the remaining was because of Mr Modi’s personal charisma, he said. Mr Thackeray’s comment comes in the wake of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut saying that Mr Gandhi was capable of leading the country and that the “Modi wave” had faded.

“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is capable of leading the country. It is wrong to call him ‘Pappu’,” Raut had said referring to the Hindi name used to mock the Congress vice-president by a section on social media to claim he was immature in politics.

On the Gujarat election, Thackeray said, “The recent trends as well as reports indicate that the ruling party is likely to lose the elections.”

“Some visuals of Modi’s public meetings are doing the round, which show that people are leaving the venue in groups during his address,” he said.