PM Modi sees arrogance in Rahul Gandhi's claim

Chikkamagaluru: A day after Congress president Rahul Gandhi spoke of his readiness to become Prime Minister if his party fares well in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused him of sheer arrogance for making such an assumption when the Congress was losing election after election in the country.

Addressing an election rally in Chickmagalur, Mr Modi ridiculed Mr Gandhi’s talk of becoming Prime Minister despite his party’s many electoral losses. “The Congress party is losing one election after another in the country , yet its president, Rahul Gandhi is confident of becoming Prime Minister in the 2019 elections. Is this not sheer arrogance on his part?” he demanded, to a huge roar from the gathering.

Accusing the Congress of being a family-centric party , he said it believed it was “the legitimate heir of the PM’s chair.” Taking his attack on the Gandhi family a notch further with barely a day left for the campaign to end, Mr Modi said, “He (Rahul Gandhi) feels that the prime minister’s chair is reserved for one family and no one can sit on it. He feels it is an ancestral right (paitruk hak).” He said the Congress leader was not bothered about his party, its legacy, senior leaders, or the country. “From morning till evening, while sleeping and while awake, he has only thing in his mind and that is the prime minister’s chair,” he said.

“The naamdar who does not have confidence in his alliance partners...who doesn’t care for the Congress’ internal democracy, whose arrogance has reached cloud seven, and is declaring himself that he would be the prime minister in 2019...will the country ever accept such an immature ‘naamdar’ leader?” Mr Modi asked.

Claiming that the Congress was staring at another defeat in Karnataka, he said it should stop blaming tampering of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for its repeated defeats. “By making such allegations over the use of EVMs the Congress is trying to damage the credibility of the elections, when the Election Commission of India has been lauded world-wide for its impartial  holding of  polls,”  he said, adding mockingly, “The EVMs are wrong, the Congress is right and the ECI is wrong and the Congress is right.”

Mr Modi also maintained that whenever the party was in legal trouble, it started to target the CBI, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). “Both former Congress president, Sonia Gandhi and her son , Rahul Gandhi are out on bail in a Rs 5,000 crore scam but they continue to target the judiciary,” he added.

Recalling that the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had contested and won from Chikkamagaluru in 1978, he asked, “Did she ever visit the constituency after winning the election? Likewise, her daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi, contested and won from Ballari in 1999 and announced a Rs 3,000 crore package for it. But did the constituency get the funds  despite the Congress party being in power in the state then?”

Mr Modi also wanted to know if Amethi had seen any development although Mr Rahul Gandhi had  represented it in Parliament since 2004. “ Now he is campaigning in the state speaking about the development of Karnataka. Do you need such a family, party and leaders?” he demanded as the gathering responded with a loud “No.”