KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for mocking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over contesting from two Lok Sabha seats, saying PM Modi and many others from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have done the same in the past.
“He (Modi) unnecessarily made a statement this morning. Although CPI(M), Congress and BJP are contesting as partners in Bengal, he referred to the Congress and asked why Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Rai Bareli. He (Rahul) has done what he wanted. He has every right. How does it concern you? You also fought from two seats in the past. Many in your party did it,” Mamata Banerjee said at a Trinamool Congress rally at the Burdwan East constituency.
“It seems he (Modi) has no work to do. A prime minister doesn’t even know what should be said, and what shouldn’t,” Banerjee said, referring to the barbs that PM Modi threw at Rahul Gandhi from an election rally in Bengal’s Burdwan district after the Congress announced that the Wayanad MP would also contest from Rae Bareli.
She did not elaborate. To be sure, PM Modi contested from Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh in 2014. He won both seats and opted to retain the Varanasi seat.
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At the Burdwan rally earlier in the day, PM Modi said he had spoken about the Congress losing the elections in his Parliament speech. “When their senior leader quit her Lok Sabha seat and entered Parliament through Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, it was evident they sensed defeat,” he said, a reference to Sonia Gandhi’s decision not to contest from the Gandhi family pocket borough Rae Bareli due to health reasons. On Friday, the Congress announced Rahul Gandhi will contest from the constituency.
“Now, the ‘shehzada’ of Congress, who went to Wayanad after losing the Amethi seat, is also contesting from Rae Bareli. He knows he will lose Wayanad this time,” Modi said, referring to Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Rae Bareli.
He said Rahul Gandhi should not be afraid and “keep running away”.
“I had said earlier that the ‘prince’, after the polling in Wayanad, would look for another seat, due to fear of defeat in that constituency. Now, he had to run away from Amethi and chose the Rae Bareli seat. They go around and ask people not to feel afraid. I would tell them the same thing – don’t be afraid and don’t run away,” PM Modi said.
Over the past two weeks, Modi has upped his aggression on the campaign trail, first accusing the Congress of trying to siphon away reservations meant for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, and give them to Muslims, then alleging the opposition party wanted to redistribute wealth to Muslims, pointing to a 2006 speech by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had said that the first right over the country’s resources should go to minorities, particularly Muslims. The Congress has said that the BJP is misrepresenting Singh’s remark, and that the PM had only spoken of the need to empower the marginalised, including scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and Muslims.
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