BJP SAYS RAHUL IS FOLLOWING AURANGZEB, KHALJI IN GUJ
for the Prime Minister and all political opponents.
Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani was quick to pounce on the opportunity as he termed the meme “blatantly classist”, showing the opposition party’s mindset towards India’s poor. Other senior BJP leaders followed soon.
“Madam Sonia Gandhi & Mr Rahul Gandhi do u still believe that only u have a divine right to rule India? Country expects ur response on the tweet of the youth Congress, which is shameful & insulting to poor. U can delete the Tweet but ur thinking towards the poor stands exposed (sic),” Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted.
Launching a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi over his visits to temples in poll-bound Gujarat, senior BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao on Tuesday accused him of following in the footsteps of medieval sultans such as Alauddin Khalji and Aurangzeb.
“Aurangzeb (a Mughal emperor) had destroyed many temples during his rule. However, when the common people opposed him, he promised to build two-three temples. Alauddin Khalji did the same...And now Rahul Gandhi is going in the same direction,” Rao said.
During his campaign trail, Gandhi visited a string of temples in Gujarat, including the famous Akshardham shrine. The BJP has accused him of playing the soft Hindutva card in a bid to attract the majority community.
Talking to reporters, Rao termed as “good” the proposal of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board on resolving the Ayodhya issue and asked Gandhi to clarify the party’s stand by breaking his “silence”. “Gandhi’s visits to temples is a drama. Gandhi is trying to mislead the people by embarking on temple visits, which has become a compulsion for the Congress vice-president in view of the elections,” the BJP leader said. Gandhi, who is battling allegations of displaying soft Hindutva in Gujarat, had last week clarified that he is a devotee of Lord Shiva.
RAJKOT: THE BJP HAS ACCUSED RAHUL GANDHI OF PLAYING THE SOFT HINDUTVA CARD IN A BID TO ATTRACT THE MAJORITY COMMUNITY
“Those who cannot rise above ‘mom’ and ‘mam’ are running ‘meme’,” Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan also wrote on the micro-blogging site.
The BJP is planning to harp on Modi’s image to retain Gujarat, a state where it has been in power since 1998. It has planned a rally of Modi in almost every district to highlight that Gujarat’s son was ruling India and he should not be weakened.
“There is a message that if Modi loses Gujarat, it will weaken him in 2019 when the country will have the next Lok Sabha election. This is something that Gujarat will not let happen,” a Union minister told the HT.