Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked BJP government in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh during his rally in state capital Bhopal. Taking a dig at Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Gandhi drew a parallel between his announcements and the runs scored by the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar.
“You all have known about Tendulkar. Whenever he played any innings, everybody was assured that he will score at least 50, 60, 70 or 100 runs.
“Here, in Madhya Pradesh, there is a run machine known as the state chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan who makes announcements with the same pace,” Gandhi said. He said Chouhan has made 21,000 announcements so far “but nothing happened”.
He then asked the gathering, “What you have got? Madhya Pradesh ranks first in unemployment, rapes, malnutrition and crime against women, Gandhi alleged.
The Congress chief also termed the demonetisation as the “biggest scam” of the Modi government to convert black money into white.
Gandhi was addressing a public meeting in Bhopal after holding a 15 kilometre roadshow to kickstart the Congress’ campaign for the assembly polls slated later this year.
He held the four-hour-long roadshow after performing ‘puja’ and taking blessings from 11 priests. Traveling in a bus, the 48-year-old leader criss-crossed several areas of Bhopal, passing through the roads which were decorated and had party banners like the ones describing Gandhi as a ‘Shiv bhakt’ (a devotee of Lord Shiva).
The roadshow was the virtual launch of the Congress campaign for the assembly polls slated later this year, in which his party has the tought task of dislodging the BJP which has been ruling the state for the last 15 years.
Thousands of Congress workers and local residents flanked the roads and jostled to catch a glimpse of Gandhi, who was accompanied by senior party leaders, including state Congress president Kamal Nath and state party’s campaign panel chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia.