NEW DELHI: With social media campaign “Vikas Gando thayo che (development has gone crazy)” is being seen emerging rallying cry of Opposition ahead of Gujarat Assembly elections, BJP sought to fact-check developmental works carried out in Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s Parliamentary constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. With Gandhi in Gujarat, BJP in full force descended in Amethi in a bid to punch holes in claims of the Congress vice president.
BJP chief Amit Shah reiterated that Gandhi couldn’t see development in Gujarat because he sports Italian glasses. He vowed that the BJP government in the state would bring all round development in Amethi. The UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister Smriti Irani accompanied Shah in a show of strength in the Gandhi pocketborough.
The BJP strategists claimed that Gandhi would be campaigning intensively in Gujarat and he would seek to build on the “Vikas Gando thayo che” theme in the elections. While the BJP leaders claim that the party has no worries in the urban pockets, the Opposition campaign could win audience in the rural constituencies. Incidentally, the BJP did well in the results of the local bodies polls whose results were declared on Tuesday.
Contrasting Nehru-Gandhi and Modi models of development, Shah, while addressing a rally at Amethi, asked: “Why there is no office here of collector? Why there is no TB hospital and Radio FM?” Further explaining the contrast, the BJP chief asked that while the Congress vice president is mocking at development in Gujarat, what three generations of the Gandhi dynasty have done in Amethi. The BJP chief sought to answer Gandhi’s favourite question “what Modi has done in the last three years” by naming schemes unveiled by the NDA government at the Centre.
Gandhi visited Ahmedabad, Kheda and Anand in Gujarat on Tuesday and sought to connect with the tribal. He also reached out to the people affected by the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar project (SSP, while promising them justice if the Congress returned to power in the state. The Congress vice president in his two visits to Gujarat so far is seen following up Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming to the poll bound state either to lay foundation stone or inaugurate developmental projects. However, Gandhi ended up with his trademark goof-up when he asked the people if they had seen women in shorts in the Shakhas of the RSS, while attempting to argue that the women have no place in the scheme of things of BJP’s patron organisation.
Former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel sought an apology from Gandhi, while Union Minister Prakash Javdekar reminded the Congress vice president of Rashtriya Sevika Sangh, which is the RSS wing for women.