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Business News/ Elections / Lok Sabha Elections 2019/  Congress takes Lok Sabha poll battle to PM Modi’s home turf
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Congress takes Lok Sabha poll battle to PM Modi’s home turf

Rahul Gandhi targets govt over its failure to create jobs and the alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jets deal
  • Congress holds a meeting of its top decision-making body CWC in Ahmedabad to discuss its strategy for the Lok Sabha polls
  • Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi with party chief Rahul Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. (PTI)Premium
    Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi with party chief Rahul Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. (PTI)

    Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took the Lok Sabha electoral battle to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat and fired a fresh salvo at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government over its failure to create jobs and the alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jets deal.

    The day was also marked by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressing her first rally in the ongoing election campaign and taking on the Union government over “unkept tall promises". Vadra, Gandhi’s younger sister, had recently been appointed Congress general secretary in-charge of East Uttar Pradesh.

    The Congress held a meeting of its top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), in Ahmedabad on Tuesday to discuss the strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. The CWC meeting was taking place in Gujarat after nearly 58 years, with the last one being held in 1961.

    The presence of the entire top leadership of the party, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former party president Sonia Gandhi, in Gujarat is significant as it comes just two days after the Lok Sabha election schedule was announced.

    “What are the real and biggest issues in the country? The first and biggest issue in the country right now is unemployment...Young people in different states are wandering in search of jobs," Gandhi said at an election rally in Gandhinagar. The Rafale deal is benefitting only some corporate houses, he said.

    Vadra echoed Gandhi on the Union government not keeping its promises. “Today’s times are no less than those of the freedom struggle. Our institutions are being destroyed, hatred is being spread wherever you see. There is no bigger thing for us than safeguarding and working for the country and going ahead together for the development of the country," she told those assembled at the rally.

    Earlier in the day, senior leaders of the party paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on a day that also marked the anniversary of the historic Dandi March. This was followed by the CWC meeting at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial.

    One of the key points discussed at the CWC meeting was alliance formation. “We discussed the possibility of forming new alliances wherever possible and consolidating existing electoral partnerships. The Congress president will take a final call on any such alliance," a senior Congress leader who attending the meeting said requesting anonymity.

    The party, through the CWC resolution, urged all democratic and progressive forces to unite and pool their energies to relentlessly fight and expose the anti-people policies of the BJP-led Union government.

    The day also saw Hardik Patel, who led an agitation for quotas for the community and is the convener of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, join the Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Patel, 25, said he was joining the Congress because Rahul Gandhi was an ‘honest’ leader and resolved to take on the BJP in Gujarat.

    Patel had tacitly supported the Congress in previous state assembly election in 2017. His formal entry into the party ahead of the general elections comes with an eye on the crucial Patel support base. The community, which accounts for nearly 12% of the state’s population, was instrumental in the BJP’s rise in Gujarat in the early nineties, after the Congress alienated them.

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    Published: 13 Mar 2019, 12:35 AM IST
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