Amit Agnihotri By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Congress is gearing up to launch a campaign on May 26 — when the Central government would celebrate four years in power — which would highlight the Modi government’s betrayal of people. This would be the party’s major poll plank for the 2019 elections.

“All state unit chiefs, state incharges, MLAs, MPs and senior leaders have been directed to mark May 26 as the Betrayal Day,” said AICC in-charge (organisation) Ashok Gehlot.

The former Rajasthan chief minister said the party workers, charged up after Rahul Gandhi’s April 29 rally in Delhi, will start a nationwide protest against the ruling government on May 26 and will continue it till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“We will expose the Modi government,” Gehlot said. Buoyed by the party’s success in forming a coalition government with JD(S) in Karnataka, which has enthused the Opposition, Gehlot said the Congress, together with like-minded parties, has hit the ground to oust the BJP at the Centre.

Gehlot accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of wasting taxpayers’ money by celebrating four years of him in power and said the Congress never indulged in such gimmicks.

“As CM or PM, we are the trustees of public money. We have no right to blow it up. The BJP has been celebrating each year in government by spending public money, the Congress has never set such precedents,” he said. Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala said the protest would focus on government failures related to jobs, better MSP for farmers, curbing corruption and lowering fuel prices.

Noting the economy is sliding, Surjewala said the PM was still waving off corporate loans worth lakhs of rupees. “Is it not betrayal?” he asked.

Recalling the 2014 national polls, Gehlot said four years ago, when Modi came to the Centre riding on a clear mandate, which came to any leader 30 years after Rajiv Gandhi’s historic mandate in 1984, he made tall promises to the voters, but betrayed this trust.

WHAT THE CONGRESS PROTEST WOULD SAY