NEW DELHI:With just four days left for the campaigning in Delhi, the political rhetoric hit an all-time high on Sunday as party bigwigs addressing rallies attacking each other. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi held her first rally in the capital targeting both the AAP and the BJP, particularly Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister too addressed his second rally in two days, focusing his sharpest attack on the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.
Modi cited track record of the BJP-ruled states against the “dharna” politics of their rivals to seek clear mandate in Delhi. Though he did not name Kejriwal or the AAP, it left little in doubt who target of his attack was. “Running a government is a serious task... Governments cannot be run by getting space in the media but getting a space in the hearts of people,” he said at rally in Delhi south-west township Dwarka.
Hard-selling his strict governance style, Modi said if the BJP Government was formed in Delhi then it would have the “fear of Modi” and perform. “Delhi needs a government with full majority. If you vote in a BJP Government, then those who will be here will be afraid of Modi and the central government. But if there is someone else, then that person will bring in only devastation,” Modi said, alluding to the AAP.
Claiming that he was lucky, he said rivals kept saying that the prices have gone down as Modi was lucky. “If Modi’s luck is benefiting the people, what can be more fortunate? If because of my good luck, prices of petrol and diesel get reduced and common man saves more, then what is need for bringing someone who is unlucky?”
But when it came to Sonia Gandhi she did not pull back any punches. Addressing her first rally, she attacked both Modi and Kejriwal. “While one party has a pracharak, who only does ‘prachar’ the other just has a dharnebaaj, who is all the time busy organising dharnas. Delhi needs good governance and not false promises... The BJP and the AAP can only talk big and make hollow promises,” Sonia said.
She said the country could not merely be run though slogans, but hard work. She also raked up the issue of communal violence in Trilokpuri and Dilshad Garden saying it was done with an eye on elections. Talking about the BJP’s prime target of bringing back black money, she asked: “Where is the black money from which every citizen was supposed to get `15 lakh each.”