Rajasthan assembly elections: Amit Shah attacks Rahul Gandhi on Navjot Sidhu’s Kartarpur visit

BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s Pakistan visit, asking his party to clarify if Sidhu had the approval of the party boss.

Shah, who addressed a press conference in Jaipur hours before campaigning is to end in Rajasthan, said Sidhu, on his return from Pakistan, had stated that he had gone there at the behest of his “captain” Rahul Gandhi. “Sidhu has said that Rahul Gandhi is his captain and that he had gone to Pakistan and had hugged Bajwa at his behest. If you hug the Pakistan Army’s chief, then such slogans will be raised,” Amit Shah said.

On his return from Pakistan after the Kartarpur event, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu had referred to Rahul Gandhi as his “captain”. Both Sidhu’s hug as well as his reference to Rahul Gandhi as his captain had landed him in a controvery with his detractors within the party, at one point, calling for his resignation.

Other than Sidhu, Amit Shah criticised the Congress on a number of issues and called it a party ‘without discipline’. Speaking at length, Amit Shah said that the party was misinforming the country’s people and indulging in negative politics, promoting casteism and was playing politics of appeasement.

Pointing at the fact that the Congress had not named even a single chief ministerial candidate, he said that all candidates of the Congress were trying to get votes in their constituencies by



referring to themselves as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.

He attacked the Congress party on Rahul Gandhi’s remark that the PM opens his rallies with ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ but works for industrialists such as Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi. “Congress had a lot to say on PM Modi’s ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, but in their rally, they made the crowd chant ‘Sonia Gandhi ki jai’, did they not? You disrespect the crowd chanting an emotional slogan and then brag about your own?,” he said.

Before training his guns at the Congress, Amit Shah spoke about the BJP’s campaign in the five states that are undergoing elections. He said that the BJP has campaigned strongly in all 5 states and that it had held more than 200 rallies in the 5 states, and that people have seen the good work done by the BJP.

He said that through its rallies, the BJP had managed to educated the voters on the Congress’s misinformation and “negative politics”. He said that the Congress had done nothing but made allegations through the entire election campaign and was fighting the elections on the basis of caste issues and dynasty, while the BJP was contesting the electoins on the basis of state development and upliftment of the people.

“They even tried to disrespect the prime minister of India and I think we succeeded in telling the voters the kind of government Congress would bring. I have complete faith that BJP will emerge as a winner,” he said.