Bhopal: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the BJP of toppling his party’s government in Madhya Pradesh in 2020 by purchasing MLAs, and expressed confidence that the grand old party would win around 150 seats, out of the 230, in the November 17 state assembly elections.
He was addressing an election rally in Vidisha, around 55 km from the state capital.
“A storm is going to come in favour of the Congress. The party will be winning 145 to 150 seats. Five years back, you (people) elected a Congress government but BJP leaders (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, (MP Chief Minister) Shivraj Singh (Chouhan) and (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah purchased the MLAs and stole your government,” Gandhi said.
The Kamal Nath-led Congress dispensation, which was in power in Madhya Pradesh for 15 months till March 2020, waived farm loans of 27 lakh farmers. But by toppling that government, the BJP deceived labourers, farmers, small traders and unemployed people, he alleged.
The Congress ousted the BJP from power in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh through love and not hatred, he said.
“The BJP ran a 40 per cent cut government in Karnataka…(After Congress came to power there) I told the Karnataka chief minister to return the money that was snatched by the BJP government from the pockets of poor people in five years. I told him to return the money to the poor, which the BJP had given to the rich,” he said.
People in the Congress-ruled Karnataka and Chhattisgarh are getting LPG cylinders at Rs 500 each, while people in other states are paying Rs 1,200-1,400 here for the same, Gandhi said.
The former Congress president said the Congress fulfilled all its promises in Karnataka, including farm loan waiver and free bus travel to women.
Farmers in Chhattisgarh are getting the guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) of the crop, and labourers are being paid Rs 10,000 as wages. This is strengthening the local economy, he said.
While reiterating various guarantees of his party in Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi said that the MSP of wheat will go up Rs 2,600 per quintal, which will further be increased to Rs 3,000, while paddy will be purchased at Rs 2,500 per quintal.
Gandhi claimed that the farmers of neighbouring Chhattisgarh don’t want their land to be sold.
“A farmer in Chhattisgarh told me that he doesn’t know the price of his land. He said that he has nothing to do with the price because he is not going to sell it because the Chhattisgarh government is giving the right price for his crop and waived his loan,” he said.
We put money into the pockets of farmers and labourers, who made purchases from small traders, thus strengthening the local economy, he added.
PM Modi used to claim that he set up 500 industries in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress MP said, and asked, “Do you know any of them?”
Gandhi reiterated that in Madhya Pradesh, too, farm loan up to Rs 2 lakh will be waived if the Congress is voted to power.
Accusing the BJP of giving contracts to big contractors and to Ambani and Adani, Gandhi said, “Rs 14 lakh crore loan of rich people have been waived. This is not the money of Adani. This is GST money, which is given by common people on every expense.”
He said that all the airports, ports, roads belong to people.
“Where did banks get the money from to waive loans? It’s public money,” he said.
Taking potshots at the media, Gandhi pointed out that there is only one big camera in front of him.
“At the PM’s rally, you can see 50-100 cameras placed in front of him…You can see him round-the-clock on TV,” he said, alleging that PM Modi talks about Hindu Dharma and Hindu-Muslim in his speeches and make them fight between themselves.
“There is one shortcoming. I talk about farmers, labourers, small shopkeepers, but they don’t have the remote control of the media. If the remote control was with farmers, labourers, small shopkeepers, you would have seen Rahul Gandhi’s face 24 hours on TV…The control is in the hands of Adani,” he claimed.
Gandhi alleged that the BJP has created two types of Hindustan. In the one which is of poor people, 18,000 farmers in Madhya Pradesh (under the BJP rule) committed suicides, while billionaires on the other hand are purchasing palaces in London, Japan, the US and living a lavish life, he said.
“There should be one Hindustan, where everyone should get respect and its backbone is farmers, labourers and youths,” he said while alleging that for the first time in the country’s history, farmers are paying taxes on tractor, pesticides and fertilisers.
He said that if the Congress is voted to power at the Centre after the general elections, it will open 2-3 international airports in Chhattisgarh to ensure exports of crops like mango, paddy, rice.
The same is planned for Madhya Pradesh, he said.
Accusing the current BJP-led government in Madhya Pradesh of corruption, he cited alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations, like Vyapam, and Patwari scam.
“They stole the government because they wanted to get involved in corruption,” he said.
Gandhi also said that different viral videos showing the son of a Union minister (Narendra Singh Tomar), in which he is talking about transferring Rs 100 crore and more.
“This is your money and not of Tomar,” he said while accusing the rampant corruption.
A video purportedly showing Union minister’s son Devendra Pratap Singh Tomar and a “middleman” talking about several crore rupees went viral on social media. Tomar has termed the video as fake.
He asked whether the Modi government had sent the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax Department to probe this episode.
Modi had said that demonetisation will end the black money.
“So what type of money is this?” Gandhi asked, referring to Tomar’s video.
Gandhi said his Lok Sabha membership and government accommodation was taken away because he used to talk about Adani in Parliament.
Polling for 230 seats of Madhya Pradesh assembly will be held on Friday.
