Cong LS poll drive takes off with anti-modi tirade
Indicating that it is not ready to waste any time and take any chance, the State Congress launched its campaign
for Lok Sabha election with a bang and obviously, the target of its tirade was none other than the BJP’s chief campaigner and arguably the prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi; the party also minced no words in calling him a liar and ghost. All Congress leaders, present during the state-level meeting titled Vision 2014 at Shanmukhanand Hall, opined that the next Lok Sabha election will be a fight between communalism and secularism and appealed to the workers to strive hard for ensuring the victory of secularism.
The meeting was attended by all key leaders, including Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.
“Narendra Modi is the biggest ghost (Saitan in Hindi) and we should finish off such ghosts. Every hair from his beard should be removed forcefully,’’ Shyoraj Jeevan Valmiki, AICC joint-incharge of the State Congress fired the first salvo amidst a big applause from a fully packed Shanmukhanand Hall.
“Modi doesn’t have the basic knowledge of economy. When we exposed his demand of spending more money on education, he kept silent. As far as GDP is concerned, Maharashtra tops the list and Uttar Pradesh is the second,’’ Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan thundered.
Economist and Rajya Sabha MP Bhalchandra Mungekar criticised Modi for his tirade against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech from Red Fort. “Jyoti Basu was the Chief Minister for 32 years. But he has never criticised the PM’s address to the nation,’’ he said.
“You can’t lead the nation with a narrow mindset. Modi displays no sense of nationalism on August 15 and January 26 when the Prime Minister and the President address the nation,’’ Mohan Prakash, AICC Incharge of the State Congress, said.
Industry Minister Narayan Rane called him a liar (thapadya in Marathi). "I have got a typical Marathi word for him (Modi), that is 'thapadya' (liar)," Rane elaborated at the meeting. Citing GDP figures, the senior Congress leader slammed Modi's rhetoric that Gujarat is leading on many fronts and said, "Gujarat cannot be ahead of Maharashtra in any sector. Our GDP is Rs 12 lakh crore, whereas their’s is only Rs 6 lakh crore."
Thakre targets NCP
A few hours before a Congress-NCP coordination committee meeting, State Congress president Manikrao Thakre came down heavily on the latter for its ‘unfriendly’ behaviour. “In by-election for the Assembly seat vacated following the death of Ramesh Wanjale, Congress had claimed that the party should get the seat as their candidate in 2009 polls lost by merely 100 votes, but NCP did not pay heed and announced its candidate. This attitude will be tolerated in future,'’ he warned.
“How long we should work with such a political alliance? In alliance, Congress workers fully help NCP but when we field our candidate, NCP tells us that their local workers are not ready to help,’’ added Thakre.