The Congress on Friday said Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM had been deployed by the BJP to damage the electoral prospects of the Congress in Gujarat, asserting that the ploy would not work this time as the people had seen through it.

Describing the AAP’s hype in Gujarat as a “mirage”, the Congress in-charge of the state, Raghu Sharma, told a media conference: “The AAP was assigned the same task in Goa and Uttarakhand. The BJP ploy worked in these states but we have effectively explained to the people of Gujarat the purpose of the AAP’s intervention in a state where it has no organisational structure. Both the AAP and the AIMIM are B-teams of the BJP unleashed to harm the Congress.”

Assembly elections are due in Gujarat this year-end. The AAP and the Trinamul Congress polled around 11 per cent votes in Goa, sinking the Congress that was 6 per cent behind the BJP in terms of votes polled. In Uttarakhand, Kejriwal sliced away 3.3 per cent votes in a cut-throat competition between the main rivals. The difference between the BJP and Congress votes in the hill state was 6 per cent.

The AIMIM has harmed the Congress in Maharashtra and Bihar, triggering charges of a secret understanding with the BJP to split Muslim votes.

Asaduddin Owaisi File Picture

A controversy erupted in Gujarat as well a couple of days ago when reports of secret meetings between AIMIM state chief Sabir Kabliwala and the BJP’s Ahmedabad mayor, Kirit Parmar, surfaced. While the AIMIM invariably succeeds in cutting into Muslim votes, its incendiary rhetoric gives credence to the BJP’s Hindutva push.

The Congress is running a low-key door-to-door campaign this time instead of any big-bang carpet-bombing.

Sharma, the state Congress in-charge, said: “There is a false propaganda about the Congress being disinterested and inactive. The BJP’s Gaurav Yatra was a disaster. We will take out Yatras from October 31 and that will establish which party has the people’s support.”

Asserting that both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will campaign after the announcement of the election schedule, Sharma said: “The Gujarat schedule was not

announced by the Election Commission only because the BJP wanted more time to launch programmes to fool the people. The Prime Minister is spending maximum time in Gujarat, the home minister is (also) there. They know the condition is bad. We will form the government with 125 seats.”

The EC last week declared the Himachal Pradesh election schedule but did not announce the Gujarat dates.

The Congress is trying to weave a rainbow coalition of castes, with special focus on OBCs, Dalits and tribals. Sharma accused the BJP of running a coercive agenda against Dalits and Adivasis in the state.

Popular tribal leader and Congress MLA Anant Patel, who was present at the media conference along with state Congress chief Jagdish Thakor, said he was being targeted by the BJP for raising the issues of the tribal community.

Patel said: “On October 8, they tried to kill me, succeeding in seriously injuring me in the attack carried out on the instructions of BJP state chief C.R. Patil. I filed an

FIR but no arrests have been made so far. Instead, they filed three counter-FIRs against me.

“I will call a meeting of the tribal community on October 29 if action is not taken against BJP zilla panchayat chief Bikhu Bhai, who led the attack on me.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi PTI Picture

Modi lays symbolic foundation stones for two ropeways in Uttarakhand

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid symbolic foundation stones for two ropeways in Uttarakhand — to Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib.

“The visit to Kedarnathji and Gurdwara Hemkund Sahib will become easy. The blessings of Guru Granth Sahib remain on me,” Modi told a rally in Mana, a village 3km from Badrinath.

He added: “My brothers and sisters, the worshippers of the sacred Guru Granth Sahib, who live across the world, will be showering blessings on me that a ropeway will be made to Hemkund Sahib.… Be it UK, Germany or Canada, there will be festivity today.” There is a perception that the BJP is keen to woo the Sikh vote.