For all the BJP’s mockery of Rahul Gandhi, Amit Shah on Sunday betrayed how big the Congress leader looms over its mindspace, saying the 400-plus target would be deemed “complete” if the party wins Rae Bareli.
At a rally in Rae Bareli, the home minister said achieving the target “will be possible when the entire country together offers Modiji 400 seats” and asserted it would happen.
“But I’m here to tell you one thing. What if winning just one seat completes the meaning of 400-plus?.... Let the lotus bloom in Rae Bareli, and it will cross 400 on its own.”
Shah accused the Nehru-Gandhis of ignoring their constituents after getting their votes. Sonia Gandhi was elected from Rae Bareli between 2004 and 2019 while Rahul is contesting from the seat this time.
“I heard the speech of sister Priyankaji. She said she was here to seek votes from her own family. She is right. The people of Rae Bareli have voted for the Nehru-Gandhi family for years,” he said.
“But how many times has the family of Soniaji come to Rae Bareli after winning five years ago? Maybe Soniaji is unwell, but why did Rahul Baba and Priyanka Didi not come?”
Priyanka has been campaigning in Rae Bareli as well as its twin constituency of Amethi, where her family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma is the Congress nominee.
“More than three dozen big incidents took place in Rae Bareli in the last few years. The boiler blast in NPTC, Unchahar, killed many people but did the Gandhi family visit the spot? Did they come when about 50 people were killed in a train accident in Bachchrawan?” Shah said.
“Did they come after half-a-dozen people died when a boat capsized? Did they visit the houses of the five poor women killed after an electric wire fell on them? Did they come here when five children drowned?”
Shah continued: “Sister Priyanka, this is your family. But our Dinesh Pratap (Singh, BJP candidate from Rae Bareli) visited the families of the victims after every incident.”
Sectarian issues got the mandatory mention, too.
Shah asked the gathering whether they had got anything from their MP’s local area development funds, and claimed that Sonia had spent most of the money on Muslims.
“Where did this money vanish?” he asked. “She spent this on her vote bank. You are not her vote bank. More than 70 per cent of the fund was spent on the minorities.”
The home minister reminded the people that the Modi government had abrogated Article 370 to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, banned the instant triple talaq, and constructed the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“Tell me, should the Ram temple have been constructed or not? The Congress didn’t want the temple to come up, but you voted for Modiji and he built and consecrated the temple on January 22,” he said.
“Now you have to decide the fate of Dinesh Pratap and Rahul Baba. Tell me, why did Rahul Baba not attend the temple consecration? Will you ask him why he didn’t go there?... (It’s because) he fears his vote bank.”
Shah promised: “Vote for us once, we will turn Rae Bareli into the most developed district in Uttar Pradesh.”
Rae Bareli votes on May 20