Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP on Friday mocked Rahul Gandhi for “running away” from the Amethi “battlefield” and choosing Rae Bareli, asserting that he was set to lose from this family borough too.

The BJP sought to use Rahul’s decision to contest from Rae Bareli and not Amethi to build the perception of the principal Opposition party already having accepted defeat in the middle of the elections.

“Now the ‘shehazada’ of the Congress, who went to Wayanad after losing the Amethi seat, is also contesting from Rae Bareli. He knows he will lose Wayanad this time,” Modi said at an election rally in Bengal. He predicted that the Congress’s seat tally in the Lok Sabha this time would be an “all-time low”.

Home minister Amit Shah was more scathing. Addressing an election rally in Karnataka’s Chikkodi, he mocked Rahul by saying that Sonia Gandhi had tried to launch “Rahul Baba 20 times” but the efforts had not been successful.

“Narendra Modi tried only once and Chandrayaan was launched. Sonia Gandhi has launched ‘Rahul Baba-yaan’ 20 times, but the launching hasn’t been successful,” Shah said, stressing that he was set to lose from Rae Bareli too.

“Now, for the 21st time an attempt to launch him is being made. He has run away from Amethi and is contesting from Rae Bareli. I want to tell you the results from here, Rahul Baba will lose to the BJP candidate, Dinesh Pratap Singh, with a huge margin in Rae Bareli,” he told the crowd.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh, not known to engage in very personal attacks, joined Modi-Shah to take digs at Rahul’s decision not to contest from Amethi.

Addressing a rally in Haryana’s Rohtak, he sought to describe Rahul as a leader who has run away from the “battlefield” despite demands from Congress leaders and workers to contest from Amethi.

“The Congress could not muster the courage to announce its candidates from Amethi and Rae Bareli. After losing in Amethi, Rahul Gandhi ran away to Kerala’s Wayanad,” Rajnath said.

“He has quit the battlefield of Amethi…. What are those who quit the battlefield called, you know better. I don’t want to take the name,” Rajnath added.

Internally, BJP leaders said that Rahul’s decision not to contest from Amethi had come as a big relief for Smriti Irani as the party had expected a tough contest if the Congress leader had entered the fray from there.

“Now, when he (Rahul) himself has run away it has come as a big opportunity for us to propagate how the Opposition is no match for Modi and that there is no alternative to Modi,” a BJP leader said.