Taking a jibe with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Sunday said people from Amethi have been coming to Gujarat for jobs.
Rahul Gandhi represents Amethi in Lok Sabha and Amit Shah’s remark comes in the wake of continued criticism of the “Gujarat Model” of development by the former at election rallies in the poll-bound state.
“Rahul Gandhi asks for accountability. For last many decades, Gandhi scions have been representing Amethi, but even the foundation stone of collectorate office was laid by the BJP government. People from Amethi come to Gujarat for jobs,” BJP’s national president said while addressing a rally in Gujarat’s Bharuch.
The BJP president recalled the 10 years of governance of Congress at the Centre to target Gandhi and claimed that his party did not work for the welfare of the people of Gujarat.
“Rahul Gandhi asks where is ‘vikas‘ (development) in Gujarat? I want to ask him while you were in power for 10 years what you did for the people of Gujarat. People in Gujarat were not getting electricity while the Congress was in power. There were only caste-based politics in Gujarat,” Shah said at the election rally.
“We have given electricity, roads and water to the state,” he added.
In the run-up to the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections, Gandhi has continually cornered Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP government in the state over the development achieved in the last 15 years.
He has often reiterated his assertion that “Vikas pagal ho gaya,” wherein he likened the development of Gujarat to a person and said it has gone berserk.
Claiming the Congress’ offensive in Gujarat’s election campaign to be lacking a firm ground, Shah said, “What is the base for Congress’ fight in these polls? They say Congress would be promoting Rahul Gandhi to the top post of Congress and this we have been listening from 2010. They have been losing every election, so how they will promote him to the top post?”
Rahul Gandhi is likely to succeed Sonia Gandhi as the president of the grand-old-party in the next election for Congress’ top post.
The polling for the two-phase elections in Gujarat will take place on 9 and 14 December and votes will be counted on 18 December. (Wion)
