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Stating that there had never been a leader as arrogant as Narendra Modi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday claimed that Mr. Modi had lowered the position of the Prime Minister. Ms. Gandhi lauded previous PMs including the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Congress party Manmohan Singh who kept the welfare of the public supreme.
Addressing a campaign rally at Udgir in Latur district, she lambasted the Narendra Modi-led BJP government over jobs and inflation, saying the unemployment rate was the highest in the country in the last 45 years while 30 lakh Central government posts were lying vacant and had not been filled in the last ten years.
“There has never been a leader as arrogant as Narendra Modi who thinks he will be re-elected again only on the strength of being seen with foreign leaders and not by being among the public… Earlier PMs kept up the tradition that the public is supreme. This country has seen many great PMs. There have been two-three from my family but also PMs like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr. Manmohan Singh,” Ms. Gandhi said.
She further said she had seen her grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and her father, Rajiv Gandhi, being scolded by women in rural areas who used to complain about poor roads and other issues.
Ms. Gandhi censured Mr. Modi for making “idiotic statements” by claiming that the Congress intended to confiscate people’s jewellery and small savings by conducting an X-ray of their properties and valuables, while likening Mr. Modi to an “uncleji who sat in a corner during a marriage and kept doling out unsolicited advice and trading gossip”.
“Instead of coming before the public and seeking votes on the basis of the work that he had done, he says idiotic things like the Congress wants to confiscate people’s valuables and jewellery… He thinks he has no responsibility to tell the truth. He keeps saying all kinds of false things about our family. But that is fine as he is against us and because we fight him to expose him for what he is. The bitter truth is that you have endured this regime for the last ten years under such a PM. If you vote for him again, you all will suffer for five years more,” Ms. Gandhi said.
Priyanka Gandhi also said the Goods and Services Tax has been imposed on every (piece of) agricultural equipment and promised to abolish it after the Congress comes to power.
“Hardships [of the people] and unemployment have risen in the last ten years. 70 crore people, predominantly the youth, are unemployed,” she said.
She alleged that democracy was being weakened and in Maharashtra, legislators were bought, governments toppled, and parties being split.
The Congress has fielded eye surgeon Shivaji Kalge as the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s candidate in the Latur (SC) Lok Sabha constituency. He is pitted against the BJP’s sitting MP Sudhakar Shrangare.
The seat will vote in the third phase on May 7.
