Priyanka Gandhi today warned the Prime Minister of 'ahankaar (arrogance)' like Duryodhan, two days after Narendra Modi called her late father Rajiv Gandhi 'bhrashtachari (corrupt) number 1'.
In reply to Priyanka's statement, BJP president Amit Shah, who is holding rallies in Bengal, today May 23 will show who is Duryodhan and who is Arjun.
At a rally in Ambala for Congress canidate Kumari Selji, Priyanka said: 'This country has never forgiven ego and arrogance. History is witness to this, the Mahabharata is witness to this.... Duryodhana also had such arrogance. When Lord Krishna went to make him understand, he tried to take him captive,' the Congress general secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh said.
She read out a verse by Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. 'Jab naash manush par chhata hai, pehle vivek mar jata hai (when one is close to destruction, the first casualty is the soul).'
She dared Modi to fight the Lok Sabha elections on issues like development rather than divert the people's attention. 'You are the PM, you are a big leader of the BJP, you should understand this. Otherwise the people will teach you a lesson,' she said. 'You cannot mislead the people. The people of this country make every leader answerable and they will make you answerable as well,' she said.
She attacked Modi for saying that Rajiv Gandhi's life ended as 'Bhrashtachari Number 1'. 'When BJP leaders go out to campaign, they do not talk about issues. They do not say why they have not fulfilled the promises they made,' she said. They raise other issues. 'Sometimes they say the elephant was sleeping for 70 years, sometimes they seek votes in the name of martyrs, and at other times they insult those from my family who sacrificed their lives,' she added. 'But they do not talk about your needs, your problems that need to be resolved.'
These polls are not about 'one family, this election is about crores of families whose hopes and aspirations have been completely broken', she said.
Former Union minister Selja is taking on the sitting BJP MP R.L. Kataria in Ambala.
In Bengal, Shah said: 'Abhi abhi Priyanka Gandhi ne Modiji ki tulna Duryodhan se ki.' Addressing Priyanka he said: 'Priyankaji, desh ki janta taye kar degi, 23 tareekh ko, Duryodhan kaun hai, aur Arjun kaun hai.'