Cong-RJD campaign a political drama: NDA
NDA
allies on Sunday launched a sharp attack on the opposition's 'Vote Adhikar Yatra', led by Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi
and RJD's Tejashwi Prasad Yadav from Sasaram in Rohtas.
Deputy CM and senior BJP leader Samrat Choudhary circulated a 1991 photograph showing film actor Rajesh Khanna casting his vote with former PM Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi standing beside him. "Have you ever cast your vote like this?" he asked.
Choudhary alleged that the Nehru-Gandhi family treated the country as personal property. "This family used to consider voting as a family joke and used to vote. The entire frustration of Rahul Gandhi, the heir of the 'Nehru sultanate' drenched in the anarchy and arrogance he inherited, is on the fact that he is no longer getting the exemption that his family used to get.
When those who considered voting as a means of entertainment for their family were rejected by the public, they set out with a web of lies, rumours and confusion," he said.
Union minister Nityanand Rai accused the opposition of attempting to mislead the public. "The Grand Alliance leaders, especially Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi, are conspiring to mislead the people of Bihar, but they are not going to fall into their trap now because they know the reality," he said.
Turning his attack on RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Rai added, "Those who stole the fodder are distributing fake certificates of vote theft. I want to ask Lalu ji who did the fodder and uniform scam? Before standing on the mountain of scams and accusing the Election Commission of vote theft, look into your own conscience and see how you have ruled Bihar for a long time by making foreign infiltrators, Bangladeshis and Rohingyas voters.
The EC is trying to correct the mistakes through SIR."
Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) national president and minister Santosh Suman dismissed the 'Vote Adhikar Yatra' as political theatre. "Congress and RJD, guilty of ruining Bihar for decades, should apologise to the people of Bihar. It is ridiculous for a party whose culture is booth looting, violence and snatching the right to vote of the poor and Dalits, to take out a yatra in the name of protecting the right to vote.
In 2000, due to RJD's booth looting, repolls had to be held at 2,273 polling booths in Bihar. Before that, in the 1995 Bihar Assembly elections, repolls had to be conducted at 1,668 polling booths due to widespread complaints of booth capturing," he said.
JD(U) spokespersons Arvind Nishad, Manish Yadav and media panellist Mahesh Das also criticised Rahul Gandhi's Bihar campaign. "Rahul should understand that Bihar is not the land of political tourism, but of development and progress. There is no need to wear the glasses of politics, because you have the one only of massacre, looting and crime," they said.
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