A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the poll-bound Gujarat for the third time in a months time, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is also in Gandhinagar today.
BJP and Congress are playing the cat and mice game, chasing each other, each of them trying to pull down the other in every possible way. While Modi yesterday launched the roll-on, roll-off ferry service between Ghogha and Dahej in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi today slammed the BJP for trying to buy the Patidars.
A day ahead of Rahul’s visit in a dramatic turn of event, it was just revealed that BJP tried to buy the Patidar leader Narendra Patel, offering him 1 crore.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is in Gujarat for the ‘Navsarjan Janadesh’ rally organised by the party in Gandhinagar. Prior to his visit, Rahul taking a dig at BJP for offering money to Patel tweeted “Gujarat is priceless. It has never been bought. It can never be bought. It will never be bought.”
Gujarat is priceless. It has never been bought. It can never be bought. It will never be bought.https://t.co/czGCQzrxY4
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 23, 2017
Before Rahul Gandhi arrived in Gandhinagar, Congress leader in a press conference attacked BJP over the recent incident of trying to lure Narendra Patel. Tiwari jibed that when BJP is being accused of offering bribe to buy the Patidar leaders, all you hear from the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and the BJP party President Amit Shah is a deafening silence.
He further added that the actions of BJP trying to lure and allegedly bribe the Patidars, who are not even a political association, clearly shows their frustration and desperation. During the press conference, Tiwari also reminded of the same course of events when BJP was levelled in public space to have bribed the Congress MLAs during the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections. a few months back. He questioned the Prime Minister, whose mantra is ‘na khaunga, na khane dunga’ that shouldn’t he be investigating the allegations?
Earlier in the day, it was reported that Patidar leader Hardik Patel might have met Rahul Gandhi along with Alpesh Thakor in a hotel in Ahmedabad. However, Patidar leader Dinesh Patel, denied of any such meeting, saying that Hardik will meet Rahul when Gandhi visits Gujarat from 1-3 November. Though the news of the meeting between Ashok Gehlot and Hardik Patel is confirmed.
Rahul Gandhi while addressing the gathering at the Navsarjan Janadesh’ rally, in Gandhinagar said that there not a single community left in Gujarat which is not involved in protesting. He continued that it is strange that every single community is protesting for something of the other and the reason behind this is because in the past 22 years the government of the people of Gujarat have not served the state, instead the government of a few industrialists have ruled it.
Rahul, attacking the BJP government and Narendra Modi, once again brought up the issue of unemployment, failure of the Modi government in the implementation of GST and the failure in the experiment of demonetisation. Providing data to support his statement, Rahul said that there are around 30 lakh unemployed youth in Gujarat and Narendra Modi only boasts about ‘Made in India’.
Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani have a voice in their heart and that voice is not just inside the youths of Gujarat but all Gujaratis and this voice can’t be subdued or bought, the Congress leader said.
Pure desh ka budget laga do, puri duniya ka paisa laga do Gujarat ki awaaz ko dabaya nahi jaa sakta: Rahul Gandhi in Gandhinagar pic.twitter.com/PzYm9KnzVY
— ANI (@ANI) October 23, 2017
Reminding of the heroes given by Gujarat like Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, Rahul said that those leaders spoke for the voice of Gujarat and even they could never be bought, similarly, the Gujarat of today cannot be bought with money. These comments of Rahul comes in wake of the recent incident, when Narendra Patel, a Patidar leader revealed that BJP tried to bribe him 1 crore to join the party.
Attacking the ruling BJP government, Rahul said that the ruling party has now become so scared and desperate that they are trying to buy the people. He said that the “Prime Minister says his ‘Mann Ke Baat’, to the entire nation, today I want to say Gujarat’s ‘Mann Ke Baat’ that the youth if Gujarat needs education.” In 22 years, you have put every college and university in the hands of 5-10 industrialists, says Rahul Gandhi.
He accused Modi and BJP that it is because of them that the youth of Gujarat is unable to get educations because the colleges ask for bribes and even if somehow they manage to get the admission when they pass out, they fail to get jobs in Gujarat. Further attacking the Modi government he alleged that the BJP government at the state and at the centre can waive off thousands of crores of the loan of the big industrialists, but when it comes to waiving off the loan of poor farmers in Gujarat, the government is unable to do it.
Not leaving the opportunity to attack the BJP Party President Amit Shah and his son Jay Shah, Rahul also spoke about the silence of Modi over the issue and urged him to break the silence.
If the Congress comes to power in Gujarat, it will form a government for everyone, assures Rahul Gandhi. He said that Congress party is the party of all and also promised that the party will do everything possible, for the youth of Gujarat, for their education, for better health facilities, for more job creations and all other issues.
The Congress leader said that if Congress comes to power in Gujarat, it will be the government of the people, of the poor, of the youth, of the farmers, of all the communities of Gujarat, it will be the government of the entire state.
The Congress leader also did not forget to mention the failures of demonetisation and GST, implemented by the Modi government. He also underlined that the idea of GST was initially suggested by Congress, but the party wanted a single tax system and not divided under 5 slabs but the BJP did not agree to the suggestions. He also called the Centre’s Goods and Services Tax (GST), the ‘Gabbar Singh Tax.’
Prior to the visit of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party in charge in Gujarat, Ashok Gehlot in an interview with the media announced that “If voted to power in Gujarat, the Congress government will give monthly financial allowances to the educated unemployed youth and will also provide free homes to the poor.” He further added that the Congress government in Gujarat will give a complete loan waiver to the farmers and also increase the minimum support price for the farm products.