Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed on Wednesday that Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi were not campaigning in states such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where their party is in a direct fight with the BJP but were investing time in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi against the mahagathbandhan and AAP.
Hours after Kejriwal spoke, Rahul was at a rally in Bhind, Madhya Pradesh.
Kejriwal, who was hoping for an alliance with the Congress in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab but which did not work out, said: “Jahan BJP se seedhe takkar hai, wahan yeh bhai-behen koi nahi ja rahe.'
Picking on Priyanka, he said: 'She (Priyanka) is wasting her time in the national capital. I want to ask her, why isn’t she going to Rajasthan? Why isn’t she in MP? She is campaigning in Uttar Pradesh against SP-BSP. In Delhi, she is campaigning against Aam Aadmi Party.”
Priyanka has campaigned in Wayanad, Kerala, after Rahul filed his nomination from there. On March 12, she addressed the Jan Sankalp rally in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar amid chants of “Indira Gandhi, zindabad!”. On Tuesday, she addressed a rally in Ambala, Haryana, where here stinging Duryodhan comment made BJP chief Amit Shah react within hours.
Kejriwal, who heads AAP, was responding to a question on Priyanka’s campaign in Delhi when he commented about Rahul and Priyanka campaigns. Priyanka started campaigning for Congress candidates in Delhi today. Kejriwal said the she would be wasting her time campaigning in the national capital.
Kejriwal may seem partially correct about Priyanka, but she is tied to Uttar Pradesh where she is a party general secretary. On Rahul, though, the Delhi chief minister was off the mark.
Rahul has campaigned in Gwalior and Morena, both in Madhya Pradesh, today. He was in Rajasthan on April 29 and May 3 in Jaipur, Churu, Ajmer and Jalore, all in Rajasthan.