lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Jan 20, 2019 23:22 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi traded barbs over the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Sunday in remarks triggered by a rally of leaders from 18 opposition parties that vowed to oust the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government from power.

Modi criticised the proposed “grand alliance” of opposition parties for the general elections, saying the “mahagathbandhan was a grouping of corruption, scams, negativity and instability”.

“The Opposition has ‘dhanshakti’ (money power), we have ‘janshakti’ (people’s power),” he said while addressing the BJP’s booth-level workers from five cities through his app.

On Saturday, 23 political leaders cutting across regional and ideological barriers staged a massive show of strength at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground, with about 500,000 people attending the rally spearheaded by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Shortly after the rally, Modi took a dig at the opposition leaders and said “they are so afraid of us… that they have gathered parties from across the country and are crying ‘bachao, bachao, bachao’”.

Gandhi responded to Modi’s remark in a tweet on Sunday: “Your Highness, The cries for help are the cries of millions of unemployed youth; of farmers in distress; of oppressed Dalits & Adivasis; of persecuted minorities; of small businessmen in ruin; begging to be freed from your tyranny & incompetence. In 100 days they will be free.”

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Congress president did not attend Saturday’s Kolkata rally but the party’s leader Mallikarjun Kharge was present at the event and read out a message by Sonia Gandhi that said the gathering was an “important attempt” to galvanise leaders to fight the “arrogant and divisive” Modi government.

The opposition leaders also demanded the use of ballot papers instead of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the general elections over questions of tampering.

In his address to BJP workers, Modi said the Opposition was vilifying EVMs as an excuse because it expected a defeat in the forthcoming elections.

The PM also said the Centre’s decision to provide quota to the economically weaker sections from the general category in education and government jobs was giving “sleepless nights” to political rivals. “After researching the Constitution, we made 10% reservation for the economically weaker section. They (the Opposition) have not done anything about social injustice. When we did it, they were caught napping,” he said.

When the government took a historical step for the larger good of the people, it was natural for them to oppose it, he added.

Answering the question of a BJP worker, Modi said that while the Opposition’s alliance was with political parties, the BJP tied up “with the dreams of 125 crore Indians and their hopes and aspirations”.

“Those who were on the dais in Kolkata were either the son or daughter of a big person or who wanted to make his son or daughter big in politics,” he said.

Opposition leaders Mamata Banerjee and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chandrababu Naidu said on Saturday they were not “bonded labourers” of Modi. “He (Modi) is not the ‘nawab’ and we are not his slaves that we will dance to his tunes,” Banerjee said.

“We are free citizens of this country. He wants us to be his servants, but we are not,” Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu said. Both leaders were present at the Opposition rally in Kolkata.

Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit said the BJP’s plan to build its election campaign around Modi in the national capital will not work in the Lok Sabha elections as he did not do anything for the city in the last four-and-half years. “The BJP is in a difficult situation,” Dikshit, who recently took charge as the Delhi chief of the Congress, said.

(With inputs from PTI)