Gujarat political slugfest snowballs as BJP terms Congress 'Dramebaaz party No. 1'
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Gujarat state polls, political slugfest snowballed into name-calling, with BJP terming the Congress “Dramebaaz party number one” while Rahul Gandhi expanded GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax”.
Taking a dig at GST, Congress vice president stated that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi revived the decoit made famous by Hindi film Sholay by introducing the “Gabbar Singh Tax” in the country. He was addressing a rally in Gandhinagar where the OBC leader Alpesh Thakore joined the Congress.
However, while making light of Thakore joining the Congress, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “I am pained to say that the Congress on the lines of films earlier made like Jodi Number one and so on has become a dramebaaz party number one.” The Minister argued that Thakore had been an NSUI member and had contested the last Assembly elections from the Mehasana constituency in the state on a Congress ticket. Prasad also claimed that Narendra Patel, who is an associate of Patidar leader Hardik Patel, accusing the BJP of offering Rs 1 crore to break ranks is also part of the drama being enacted by the Congress.
Seeking to target Gandhi, who in the day addressed a rally in Gandhinagar along with Thakore, Prasad charged the Congress leader of never taking up politics of development. “The problem with Rahul Gandhi is that he’s yet to understand the serious dynamics of economics and development,” added Prasad.
In contrast, Gandhi slammed the BJP Modi for bribing Patel leaders, saying he won’t be able to suppress the voice of the youth.
Meanwhile, the BJP sought to remind Gandhi of the recent electoral drubbing the party got in a few of the state elections. The BJP national general secretary Bhupinder Yadav said: “Gandhi paired with Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party was routed in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress leader had paired with Omar Abdullah and the National Conference was ousted from power in Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress paired with the Left in West Bengal and ensured the defeat of the CPI (M).”
At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Manish Tewari demanded registration of an FIR and a judicial probe into the bribery allegation saying Narendra Patel presented Rs 10 lakh cash that was given to him as token by the BJP. He also pressed for early announcement of Gujarat poll dates.
Another Hardik aide Nikhil Sawani, who had joined BJP last month, too said he was quitting the saffron party. Hardik, who has emerged as the face of Patel community and has been attacking the BJP, could not meet Rahul in Ahmedabad.
Targeting the youth, Rahul said people of all segments in Gujarat were angry with Modi and won’t sit quiet this time as the BJP government worked only for a few corporates and not the people in the past 19 years.
Rahul further said that Modi was now blaming his failure to bring in GST as an 18 percent single tax rate on the Congress, despite several warnings.
The Congress vice president also raised the corruption allegation against Jay Shah, son of BJP chief Amit Shah, saying his company’s turnover rose extraordinarily from Rs 50000 to Rs 80 crore in just one year.