Rajasthan polls: Rahul kicks off campaign, attacks BJP, Modi for false promises

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday sounded the bugle to launch the Congress campaign for the Vidhan Sabha election in November this year. This was Rahul’s first visit to the Rajasthan after taking the reigns of the party.

The Pradesh Congress was forced to hold the rally at the Ramlila ground, just outside the Jaipur’s four walls as the district administration did not allow the party to hold the rally at a bigger venue. A large number of party workers who came from far away places were asked to line up the two sides of the road from the airport to the rally venue as the venue could accommodate only 6,000 persons and there was no room for the remaining 44,000 people who had to satisfy themselves by greeting Rahul from the roadside.

The large crowd of party workers chanted “Parivartan lana hai, BJP go bhagana hai” enthused Rahul and senior party functionaries. He rode a bus to reach the rally venue and also visited the ancient Govind Deoji’s temple in the walled city. He was mobbed the party workers carrying the party flag and chanting slogans.

The spirit of the party’s workers was high during the two Lok Sabha by-elections and an Assembly seat earlier this year and the victory in the by-elections gave them the hope.

Rahul Gandhi’s speech can be seen here:

The Rahul Gandhi’s election campaign was launched at a time when the Chief Minister was taking out the Gaurav Yatra. The Gaurav Yatra is backed by the state government machinery and the government’s fund is being used for it. On the other hand, Rahul drew a large crowd of party workers who looked determined to bring back the party to power.

Rahul gave a fiery speech and took the BJP government for the task for giving false promises to the people. He said the country would not benefit from the Rafale deal and he said the Rafale deal with France was not a “clean deal”. He said the UPA government bought the fighter plane for Rs 540 crores, while PM Modi himself gave Rs 1600 crores for the same plane-over three times the price.

Rahul said the Modi government in the past two years wrote off debts of over 2.30 lakh crores of about 15 industrial houses, but when he went to to the Prime Minister seeking to write off the debts of farmers of Rajasthan, he refused to do it. Rahul made a frontal attack on the Union government and said it failed to provide two crore jobs to the youth.

A large number of rallyists were youth and they looked very spirited as they raised slogans. The Congress was successful in launching a grand campaign at a time when the Chief Minister during the Gaurav Yatra could hear the people whispering about the mood of the people in the state who looked hell-bent for a change of guard.