Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi how long he would exploit his humble background for political gain instead of seeking votes on the basis of performance.

Realising that Modi was once again relying on the sympathy factor to check the BJP’s slide, Kharge asked at a rally at Dediapada in Gujarat: “For how long will you exploit your humble origin? ‘Main gareeeb hun, mujhe gaaliyan dete hain, meri auqat poochhte hain.’ Arre, aise baat kah kar ke agar aap sympathy jamane ki koshish kar rahe hain toh log ab hoshiyar ho gaye hain, utane bewakoof nahin hain (‘I am poor, they abuse me, ask my worth.’ If you intend to generate sympathy by such talk, people are intelligent; they aren’t that foolish now).”

Modi has been accusing the Opposition of abusing him every day, and at rallies in Gujarat has complained that the Congress has threatened to “show him his place” and called him names. The Prime Minister has said the Congress leaders are “mai-baap (masters)” and he is only a “sevak (servant)”.

On Sunday, Kharge said: “Modi asks what did the Congress do in 70 years. If we didn’t do anything, you wouldn’t have got democracy to become the Prime Minister. A person like you who always claims ‘main gareeb hun (I am poor)’… Hum bhi gareeb hain. Hum toe achhuton main aate hain. Kam se kam tumhari chai to koi peeta hai, meri chai bhi nahin peeta koi (I am also poor. We are treated as untouchable. At least people drink your tea, nobody drinks our tea).”

Kharge, a Dalit, saw his mother and sister burnt alive in a caste war, and his father worked as a labourer in a factory to ensure his child got a good education. Kharge studied and became a lawyer before he joined politics.

While Modi often plays the victim and his humble background as the son of a tea-seller, has been the dominant theme in his election campaigns for many years, the Congress has never tried to milk Kharge’s humble origins for political dividends.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, known as an economist and respected the world over for his scholarly achievements, also rose from wretched poverty. But neither the Congress nor Singh himself ever used this personal truth as a political tool.

Kharge said Modi worked for the rich and the powerful and projected his humble origins to fool the people.

“You are snatching the land from the poor to be given to industrialists. You work for the rich. Your people are looting this country. Around 135 people earned Rs 30 lakh crore while 84 per cent people became poorer in one year. And you say you are poor. Gujarat is the worst in children’s malnutrition and Adani-Ambani are getting fatter in your regime. You don’t have time to think of children, you can’t give jobs to youth.”

Arguing that Modi and the BJP should ask for votes on the basis of performance, Kharge said: “The BJP is ruling Gujarat for 27 years. If you can’t solve people’s basic problems in 27 years, people should throw out the government and opt for a better system. The Prime Minister talks of a double engine. If two engines can’t move the train, a new engine must be brought in.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi gives a child a piggyback ride during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Indore on Sunday. PTI picture