INDIA leaders sound poll bugle at Patna rally

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, March 3

Sounding the poll bugle for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, top leaders of various Opposition parties, including the Congress, today addressed a rally in Patna to mobilise public opinion against the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.

‘Doors still open for TMC’

New Delhi: Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary and in-charge of communications, on Sunday said doors were still open for an alliance in West Bengal between the Congress and the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress for the Lok Sabha elections. He said the Congress was still hopeful and believed that when TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said she was a part of the INDIA bloc, her priority was to defeat the BJP. TNS

Addressing a huge crowd during the ‘Jan Vishwas Maha Rally’ at Gandhi Maidan, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government at the Centre of working for only “two-three super rich people” and neglecting Dalits and Backward Classes, who comprise 73 per cent of the population.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge lambasted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his recent volte-face. Praising RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and political heir Tejashwi Yadav for creating employment opportunities on a large scale during his 17-month tenure as the Deputy Chief Minister, Kharge said, “Your ‘chacha’ (referring to Nitish Kumar) has done a flip-flop. He may do so again. Do not accept him this time.”

Lalu also took a dig at Kumar, his arch rival, and said he had always called him ‘palturam’ (turncoat). “The label has stuck to Kumar because of his own deeds,” Lalu said. He said Kumar would be shooed away if he again came to him after growing uncomfortable with the BJP.

Lalu, whose children, including Tejashwi and Singapore-based Rohini Acharya, were present at the meeting, slammed PM Modi for criticising “parivarvad” (dynastic rule) in politics.

“What can we do if Narendra Modi does not have a family of his own? He claims credit for the Ram Temple but he is not even a true Hindu. In the Hindu tradition, a son must get his head and beard shaved upon the demise of his parent. Modi did not do so when his mother died,” Prasad noted.

Other Opposition leaders who addressed the rally, which was organised by the RJD, included Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Dipankar Bhattacharya. Akhilesh, who has recently reached a seat-sharing agreement with the Congress in his state, said, “UP and Bihar together have 120 seats. If we ensure BJP’s rout in these two, the party will not be able to form government at the Centre.”

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