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Rahul on campaign trail: Gujarat a fight between truth and falsehood, truth on our side
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Rahul Gandhi launches all out attack at PM Narendra Modi, BJP on last day of his 3-day Saurashtra campaign, set to meet Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani
On the last day of his three-day-long election campaign in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, launched an all out attack against the incumbent BJP government of the poll-bound state and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attacking the saffron party for spreading falsehoods while asserting that his party would win with the truth on its side.
#WATCH: Congress VP Rahul Gandhi addresses a public rally in Gujarat’s Pardi. https://t.co/S89CXLqgRY
— ANI (@ANI) November 3, 2017
“This is a fight between truth and falsehood. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the police, the Army as well as the government in Gujarat, Centre, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa and many other states. However, despite of all this, the Congress is going to win the Gujarat elections because we have truth on our side,” Rahul said while addressing a public meeting in Pardi district.
Joining the campaign trail and his party’s the ongoing Gujarat Navsarjan Yatra on Friday, after a brief absence caused by his emergency visit to Rae Bareli to take stock of the aftermath of the NTPC boiler explosion incident which claimed 29 lives in his mother’s Lok Sabha constituency earlier this week, the Congress vice president held no punches while attacking the BJP.
“Gujarat’s truth is youth unemployment, farmers’ helplessness, expensive private education, expensive medical care, corruption in every field, land stealing, bullets on Patidar, sticks on Dalits in Una, and hunger of Adivasis. However, the BJP’s truth is their relation with 5-10 high profile industrialists who use money, electricity, water, and land of the Gujarat public,” Rahul alleged while addressing the electorate at different venue across South Gujarat.
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A day after the Congress party’s efforts to convince Patidar Andolan leader Hardik Patel to endorse their bid for power in the state paid off, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is, on Fridayevening, set to meet Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, with the obvious hope that he too would back the grand old party in the state where the BJP has ruled for 22 consecutive years.
Mevani, who has been critical of the ruling BJP in the state, is expected to discuss the demands of his community when he meets Rahul in Navsari. If Rahul’s assurances to Mevani are in line with the latter’s expectations, then the Dalit leader could rally his massive army of supporters behind the Congress, giving the party a huge boost in its battle for Gujarat. The Congress has already roped in OBC leader Alpesh Thakore within its ranks.
The troika of Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakore – representing a huge votebank of Patidars, Dalits and OBCs respectively – present a formidable electoral challenge to the BJP in Gujarat and if all of them openly back the Congress, the endorsement could prove to be a game-changer in the poll-bound state where BJP is currently projected to register another win.
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Reiterating his attack against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Tata Nano project – the project was re-located from West Bengal to Gujarat when Modi was Gujarat chief minister – Rahul said: “The BJP’s truth is the amount of Rs. 33,000 crore, given to Tata for Nano cars. I haven’t seen a single Nano in the past 10-15 days. I’ve been looking for one, but couldn’t find it.”
Rs 33,000 cr was given for Nano but I haven’t seen a single Nano in the past 10-15 days. I’ve been looking for one but couldn’t find it: RG pic.twitter.com/sbmNsQTHSV
— ANI (@ANI) November 3, 2017
“The Congress had provided employment to crores of people in the same amount of money through MNREGA,” Rahul said at another rally.
Addressing farmers in Valsad, the Nehru-Gandhi scion who is leading his party’s charge against the BJP in Gujarat raked up the issue of land acquisition for industrial corridors by the state government, alleging that this was “the biggest corruption” perpetrated by the saffron party in the state.
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In a move, albeit only a formality, that is clearly aimed at giving Rahul Gandhi a much clearer and enhanced political profile in the run up to the high-stakes Gujarat elections (due in two phases scheduled for December 9 and 14), the Congress party could elevate the Nehru-Gandhi scion as party president by November-end.
Rahul’s elevation as Congress president has been a foregone conclusion ever since he joined the party but its actual implementation has been hastened in recent months due to an order expected from the Election Commission by December-end in a petition filed before the poll panel seeking organizational elections within the Congress.
With Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s poor health and frequent visits to hospitals becoming a cause for speculation on how long she can actively play the role of party chief, Congress sources say this is perhaps the best time for Rahul to replace his mother as head of the grand-old party.
“Elevating Rahul as Congress president before Gujarat goes to polls will give him a much larger political profile and is likely to play out well before the electorate as his image of a reluctant politician which was created by the BJP has now changed to one of a combative leader who can talk about the people and take on Narendra Modi. A string section within the party believes that there is now point in delaying the inevitable and that Rahul should be elevated as Congress president before the Gujarat polls,” a senior AICC general secretary told APNLive.
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Stressing that his party, if voted to power in Gujarat, would change the land acquisition laws in the state, Rahul said the incumbent state government under chief minister Vijay Rupani was “snatching away” the land of the poor and giving it to rich industrialists.
Farmers who have lost their land or have received notices for land acquisition had come to meet Rahul during the Valsad meeting. Most of these farmers claimed that their lands were being taken without consent for projects like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), Vapi-Vadodara Express way, and the Mumbai-Ahmadabad bullet train – a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rahul reminded the farmers of the Land Acquisition Act passed by the UPA government and stressed that the legislation was meant to empower farmers and make the acquisition process more transparent was opposed by the BJP at the Centre and that Modi, after becoming prime minister “tried to change the Land Acquisition Act thrice due to pressure from businessmen.
“If the panchayat opposes, no one can take an acre of land. We had made provisions that if land is acquired then the compensation should be four times… If our government comes to power in Gujarat we will not allow land to be taken without your permission,” Rahul announced.
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Rahul Gandhi claims Congress is winning upcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed his confidence in his party’s ability to win the upcoming legislative elections in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan on Sunday. The Wayanad MP asserted at an event in the nation’s capital that there is no way we are not going to win any of them.
They are really close and he thinks they will be able to win, he said. Rahul Gandhi said, right now, he would say we are probably winning Telangana, they are definitely winning Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. By the year’s conclusion, elections are scheduled for the aforementioned states, he said.
The Congress MP said that the BJP wins districts and doesn’t allow the opposition to create a narrative as an important lesson that the party learned in Karnataka, where it staged a comeback earlier this year with overwhelming majorities.
He further said, they battled in a way in Karnataka that stopped the BJP from controlling the narrative, contrary to what they did there.
Gandhi claimed that the party sought to stray from the Opposition’s call for a caste census by using the insults leveled by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali as a distraction in the Lok Sabha.
He continued, every time we bring a topic to the table, they use this type of nonsense to divert, and they have now learned how to deal with it. They know that a caste census is a fundamental thing that the people of India want, and they don’t want to have that discussion.
Gandhi claimed that one of the key elements in Telangana, MP, and Chhattisgarh was controlling the narrative, which contributed significantly to Congress’ victory in Karnataka.
He stated, what we did in Karnataka was we provided the state with a clear vision and then we controlled the narrative.
Rahul Gandhi referred to the One Nation, one-election debate as one of the side problems the BJP used as an excuse to sidetrack from the important issues.
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Ganesh Chaturthi: Home Minister Amit Shah offers prayers at Mumbai’s Lalbaugcha Raja | Watch here
Amit Shah visited Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s official residence Varsha and offered prayers to the Ganapati idol installed there.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday visited Mumbai’s famous Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh Pandal. On the auspicious occasion, the Home Minister along with his family offered prayers to Lord Ganesha. Every year, Amit Shah visits Lalbaugcha Raja to offer prayers to Lord Ganesha.
Lalbaugcha Raja is one of the oldest and the most popular mandals in the metropolis attracting around one crore devotees including celebrities and politicians. Celebrities who visited Lalbaugcha Raja to offer prayers to Lord Ganesh this year includes Shah Rukh Khan, Kartik Aryan, Vicky Kaushal, Pulkit Sharma, Manjot Singh and Varun Sharma, Varun Dhawan, Esha Deol, Sunny Leone, Urfi Javed among others.
Following his visit to Lalbaugcha Raja, Amit Shah visited Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s official residence Varsha and offered prayers to the Ganapati idol installed there. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was also seen along with the Home Minister seeking blessings from Lord Ganesha.
In the evening, Amit Shah is set to take part in the Laxmanrao Inamdar Memorial lecture, which will be organized at the Sir Cowasjee Jehangir Convocation Hall on the Fort campus of Mumbai University. He will depart for Delhi at 7 pm. According to an official statement from the Mumbai University, Governor Ramesh Bais, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar will also attend the event.
The Memorial lecture is being conducted by the varsity in association with Sahakar Bharati, a pan-India organisation of Co-Operators and Co-Operatives, founded by Inamdar, popularly known as the ‘Vakil Saheb’ of RSS.
Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was present at the first official meeting of the High-Level ‘One Nation, One Election’ Committee that took place under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind. The first meeting was held at Jodhpur hostel.
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One Nation, One Election: Former President Ram Nath Kovind chairs first official meeting in Jodhpur
During the meeting, the members decided to hold discussion and get suggestions from the stakeholders and the political parties on the idea of the ‘one nation, one election’.
The first official meeting of the High-Level ‘One Nation, One Election’ Committee was conducted on Saturday under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind. The first meeting was held at Jodhpur hostel. The meeting witnessed the participation of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad among others.
During the meeting, the members decided to hold discussion and get suggestions from the stakeholders and recognised national political parties on the idea of the ‘one nation, one election’, according to reports. In addition, the committee members also decided that if any of the political parties want to seek an appointment with the committee, it will be allowed to give their suggestions.
The committee members also deliberated to get the views of the stakeholders like the Election Commission of India, Law Commission Of India and other bodies. Reportedly, the members also primarily discussed how the committee will function and on which issues it needs to have deliberations with the concerned to build a consensus on the idea of the ‘one nation, one election’.
Furthermore, the panel also discussed how it needs to examine various scenarios for the simultaneous elections and make recommendations on how situations like a hung assembly or adoption of a no-confidence motion will be tackled.
Along with Kovind, Azad and Shah, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N.K Singh, former Secretary General of Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve and former Chief vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari are the other names, who are the part of the eight-member panel.
However, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury declined an invitation to be part of the eight-member committee formed by the Union government to examine the ‘One nation, One election’ concept. The Congress leader also did not attend the first official meeting in Jodhpur. As per reports, the committee will look into the feasibility of holding not only Lok Sabha and assembly elections simultaneously, but also elections to municipalities and panchayats.
