Cong contesting 2019 poll on 1971 agenda: Jaitley

New Delhi, April 26

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said Congress President Rahul Gandhi is showing signs of desperation as the “fake” narratives built by him over the Rafale jet deal and loan waivers to business houses have evaporated.

In a Facebook post, Jaitley said the desperation reached a peak when Gandhi offered four Lok Sabha seats in Delhi to the Aam Aadmi Party without realising that its chief Arvind Kejriwal was “playing games” with the Congress.

“He (Gandhi) displayed the desperation of a loser,” Jaitley said.

In a post titled ‘Has the Congress Thrown its Hands up?’, the minister said the Congress is 48 years behind the times and is fighting the 2019 election on the 1971 agenda, though India’s social combination and economic profile has completely changed since then.

“The Congress is contesting the 2019 election on the 1971 agenda. It is not in tune with the times. The writing on the wall is loud and clear. Those who lived a life of entitlement all through, give up when office seems to be a distant dream,” he said.

The ‘New India’ is a positive India, Jaitley said, adding it does not accept the negativism of Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee and TDP.

The minister further claimed that going by the euphoric reaction on the ground, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would get a larger mandate in the ongoing General Election than what it had received in 2014.

“Rahul Gandhi, in the last one year, built up a fake narrative on Rafale and loan waiver to business houses, which was contrary to the truth. The fake issues evaporated and now strike no chord in the electorate,” he said.

The “desperation of Gandhi was at a climax” when the Congress and the NCP outsourced the job of attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Raj Thackeray without realising the fallout of such a move in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other north Indian States, Jaitley said.

Voting for the first three rounds of the elections covering 303 Parliamentary seats are over and there is a “groundswell” for the BJP, he added.

“The Congress is in no position to effectively take on the regional parties or the BJP... The euphoric reaction at the ground suggests a mandate larger than 2014. A 65 per cent to 70 per cent approval rating for an incumbent Prime Minister is unprecedented in India,” Jaitley said.

The seven-phased elections will be over on May 19 and counting of votes will take place on May 23. PTI