New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday taunted Rahul Gandhi, deriding him for “running away from Amethi”, a party bastion that the Congress leader won three times before losing to Smriti Irani in the last Lok Sabha elections.
Modi’s jibe referred to the Congress’s last-minute announcement to field Gandhi from the other party stronghold of Raebareli this time, apart from Kerala’s Wayanad where Rahul has been renominated as sitting MP since 2019.
The party has chosen Gandhi loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma to take the baton forward in Amethi. This will be the first time in 25 years that a member of the Gandhi family will not represent the seat.
Modi said Friday that the “results of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections were very clear”. At a rally in West Bengal, he said no opinion or exit polls were required to predict the results.
He also mentioned what he had “forecast” about the Gandhis some time ago. “I said in Parliament, and months before polls were announced, that their biggest leader (read Sonia Gandhi, sitting MP from Raebareli) would not have the gumption to fight. She will run scared. That is what happened. She ran to Rajasthan and came to the Rajya Sabha.”
Modi said that he had made similar predictions about “shehzaade” (Rahul Gandhi). “I had said he would look for a seat other than Wayanad because he would lose in Kerala. The day voting will be over in Wayanad, I had said he would look for a third seat. His flunkies wanted him to fight from Amethi, but he got so scared that he ran and is now looking for a way out from Raebareli,” Modi told the crowd in Bardhaman.
VIDEO | “We don’t need an opinion poll. I said this earlier only that Congress’ ‘shehzada’ (referring to Rahul Gandhi) is going to face defeat in Wayanad and will run to look for another seat as soon as the polling is done there. Their people were saying that he will come to… pic.twitter.com/vMr0P0sCnt
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 3, 2024
The PM ridiculed the Congress’s assurance to all to not fear the competition. “Today I tell them, and with all my heart — arrey daro mat, bhago mat!”
He also made another “forecast” for the Congress Friday — that it would get fewer seats than last time. “I say this to you. They are not fighting polls to win. They are fighting polls to divide the nation. INDIA bloc only cares about vote-bank politics,” he added.
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Why keep Priyanka out, asks BJP
After a long wait, the party announced Rahul Gandhi as candidate from Raebareli, the constituency held by his mother Sonia Gandhi earlier. The 63-year-old Kishori Lal Sharma will fight his first election from Amethi this time. Sharma, a close family aide, has managed the two key constituencies in the absence of the Gandhis.
Other BJP leaders have also accused Rahul Gandhi of deserting Amethi.
Union Minister and BJP Hamirpur candidate Anurag Thakur said, “Rahul Gandhi would always say, ‘daro mat, daro mat’ (don’t be scared). But today he has gone from Amethi to Wayanad and from Wayanad to Raebareli. This indicates he is scared of defeat and, therefore, will go anywhere.”
Thakur also felt Rahul had not been fair to his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. “On one hand, Robert Vadra (brother-in-law) wanted a ticket (from Amethi), but the party wanted Priyanka Gandhi. But her name has not been mentioned as a nominee. Something is going on within the Congress,” he added.
BJP’s Amit Malviya, too, said that Gandhi had “abandoned” Amethi. “Losers often do that. So, no surprises there,” he said, adding this was also an “admission that Rahul Gandhi can’t win”.
Malviya hinted that the Rahul Gandhi “camp” wanted to keep Priyanka out of the electoral fray. “It is clear as day that they don’t want the sister to rise, lest she outshines him. It remains to be seen how this sibling struggle for power within the Congress will play out. But for now, Priyanka Vadra has lost out, again,” he said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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