Bongaigaon/Goalpara/Dhubri, April 4: The ruling Congress today turned its gaze on lower Assam ahead of the second phase of Assembly polls on April 11 with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi urging voters not to allow the BJP to form the government in the state as it will be either controlled by the Prime Minister's Office or the RSS.
Rahul addressed three rallies in the lower Assam districts of Goalpara, Dhubri and Bongaigaon during his fifth visit to Assam since December that coincided with the state's first phase of polls.
In the second phase, elections will be held in 61 seats and the Congress faces a stiff challenge from the AIUDF as lower Assam has a significant population of Muslims.
Addressing his last rally of the day at Gandhi Maidan under Abhayapuri (South) Assembly seat in Bongaigaon district around 3pm in support of minister Chandan Sarkar, Rahul said the next government would be of the economically weaker people and not of the rich.
In his 25-minute speech, Rahul listed out the development work carried out by the Congress government - 15 engineering colleges opened, universities increased from five to 19, three colleges set up, roads expanded from 6,000km to 24,000km, 7,000 houses built under Indira Awas Yojana and jobs given to four lakh youths.
Rahul opened his address with " namaskar" and "as-salaam-alaikum" and reminded voters that the battle of ballots this time was between two sets of ideologies - of Gandhi-Congress and of Narendra Modi-Savarkar-RSS.
He said the Mahatma taught "unity amidst diversity" while Savarkar and RSS attempted to "mount a particular "thought" on the people of the country and whosoever did not follow it, "violence was unleashed on them".
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi, referring to a remark made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to the state, said, " Shagune hao dile burah goru nomore (Old cow never dies by the curse of a vulture)" and said the stars were not in favour of the BJP. "Therefore, we will win the polls this time too and also form the next government at the Centre and make Rahul the Prime Minister," he added.
PCC president Anjan Dutta, who is not contesting the polls to devote more time to campaigning in this high-stake elections, also said the BJP had not seen the development that had taken place under the Congress in the past 15 years. Dutta will campaign in lower Assam tomorrow too.
Rahul started the day with a rally at Latima in Goalpara West constituency. He launched a scathing attack on Modi for failing to fulfil his promise of bringing back black money stashed outside the country and giving each Indian a share of Rs 15 lakh.
"I am in search of an Indian who has received Rs 15 lakh from the Modi government. Modi can only give assurances but can't fulfil them. Our aim is to make Assam a developed state. Modi assured Make in India but our aim is to Make in Assam," Rahul said.
He also said while Modi had promised to return black money, his finance minister Arun Jaitley had introduced the "fair and lovely scheme" by which black money could be made white.
Gogoi, who flew in from Jorhat to Latima after casting his vote at 8.30am, said the BJP was doing politics in the name of religion. "The BJP is a party of fundamentalists. They can divide people in the name of religion," he said and appealed to the people to vote for the Congress for "peace, security and development".
Rahul addressed his second rally at Dumordah, 25km from Dhubri town, where he repeated what he had said in Latima. AICC general secretary in charge of Assam, C.P. Joshi, also addressed the rally attended by Congress candidates from Dhubri, Gauripur, Golokganj, Bilasipara East, Bilasipara West and South Salmara.
All the rallies attracted huge crowds. Tomorrow, BJP president Amit Shah will address rallies in lower Assam.
