The Congress’s ambition to break the tradition in Rajasthan of change in governments every five years appears to rest on the twin pillars of chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s welfare agenda and exploiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “erroneous” policies to its advantage.

The issues raised by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra clearly establish that Modi’s politics and policies are fuelling a huge part of the Congress campaign. The issues are: Gautam Adani and crony capitalism, prices of petrol and gas cylinders, the Agniveer and old pension schemes, the now rescinded farm laws, note-bandi, crop insurance and unemployment. All these issues bear Modi’s personal stamp, rather than BJP’s ideological imprint.

Even today, both Rahul and Priyanka concentrated on these issues at the five public meetings they together addressed in Rajasthan. While Adani’s astonishing rise during the Modi years brought the charge of crony and monopoly capitalism, subjects like note-bandi, farm laws and Agniveer helped the Congress question Modi’s intent and vision. Prices and unemployment were being used to expose governance failures.

Priyanka also talks about the disarray in BJP’s local unit, accusing Modi of sidelining senior leaders. “The BJP is scattered, there is disunity in the state unit and Modi ji is asking for vote in his name. Will he become the chief minister here?” This is a serious attack on Modi’s strategy of keeping state-level leaders sidelined. While there were attempts to corner Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan, Shivraj Singh Chauhan was ill-treated in Madhya Pradesh. In Karnataka too, Modi tried to pull it off on his own strength.

Cooking gas cylinder prices have become such a raging concern among the poor and the middle classes that Modi had to eat his words like “rewdi culture” and embrace competitive welfare-ism. But no such escape route is available on the Agnipath scheme, enabling the Congress to corner the BJP in a state where the youth have an exceptional craze for joining the armed forces. The four-year tenure that Agniveer allows has hurt the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said: “Since the soldiers protected Bharat Mata, the government was committed to look after their families for life. But Modi broke that system. The money that was used to look after the soldiers and their families is now directed towards Adani. They chant Bharat Mata ki jai but work for Adani. For me, Bharat Mata is India’s poor, backwards, farmers, workers, women and youth. All our schemes are meant for them.”

Priyanka also wondered how could a government that doesn’t have money for the Indian Army, for employee pensions, for waiving farm loans, enrich its capitalist friends so recklessly. “Modi ki neeyat theek nahin hai (Modi’s intention is not good). Who gave airports, ports, PSUs to Adani? How could Adani earn Rs 1,600 crore a day when farmers made only Rs 27?” she wondered aloud.

Asking people whether their vote will go for nurturing a few industrialists, Priyanka said: “I am making a prediction today. If Modi and his governments continue to hand over the nation’s assets to a few industrialists, a day will come when the anger of this country’s people will become uncontrollable. Modi will have to face the anger of this country. And if Modi doesn’t bow to the people at that time, Modi will suffer.”

Amid cheering by a supportive crowd, she added: “The way Modi is running the government… you can’t hand over national treasure to one or two persons… you have to drum this message into him. People are gradually understanding how a few corporate houses are benefitted and farmers and workers are suffering. One day, this wisdom will dawn on the people.”

She also decoded Modi’s persona, saying: “Modi will go to Cricket World Cup with a plan to steal the limelight. But he won’t go to Manipur. He will invite players to his home for tea when they win medals. But when the same players will sit on the road in protest against harassment by Modi’s partner, he will ignore it. The athletes told me they were heart-broken because they were convinced Modi will take note if they sat on protest.”