Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday continued to tap into the factional feud in the Rajasthan Congress, accusing the party’s “royal family” of depriving “Gurjar son” Sachin Pilot of the chief minister’s post and also alleging that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, a Dalit, was being insulted.
Addressing a rally on the last day of campaigning, Modi focused his attack on the Congress leadership, using Pilot and Kharge to accuse the Gandhi family of being anti-Gurjar and anti-Dalit.
The aim seemed to be to woo the electorally significant Gurjar voters and also get the Dalits to back the BJP. Pilot is a Gurjar community leader and by exhibiting sympathy for him, Modi sought to send signals ahead of voting. The Gurjars are said to be angry with the Congress leadership for not elevating Pilot as chief minister instead of Ashok Gehlot and the BJP seeks to take advantage of this to the hilt.
“A Gurjar son struggles to make his space in politics, gives his life to the party and after coming to power, the royal family removes him like a fly in milk,” Modi told a rally at Rajsamand, referring to Pilot. “They did the same with the late Rajesh Pilot and are doing the same with his son. The Congress has been insulting Gurjars now and in the past,” he added.
On Wednesday, Modi had at another election rally accused the Gandhi family of continuing to “punish” Sachin Pilot as Rajesh Pilot had dared to challenge the “royal family”.
The Congress leadership and Pilot Jr himself had slammed Modi for the accusation, but the Prime Minister chose to double down on the issue on Thursday, claiming that his remarks had hurt and irritated the Congress. “The Congress’s royal family is after me for the statement I gave yesterday… and is lying that Rajesh Pilot was never victimised,” Modi said.
After Sachin Pilot, Modi referred to Congress president Kharge, hailing him as a prominent Dalit leader and accusing the Congress’s “royal family” of insulting him, claiming that his pictures were not visible in the party’s campaign posters.
“A Dalit’s son is currently Congress president and he has spent a long time in public life and won elections many times. He speaks against me but despite that I felt bad when during my roadshow in Jaipur I did not see his pictures in Congress campaign posters. The royal family members and Gehlot (pictures) were there but our Khargeji (pictures) couldn’t be seen,” Modi told the rally.
“Is this how the Congress treats the son of a Dalit? I had raised this issue yesterday too but the Congress leadership is silent,” he added, accusing the party of not respecting Dalits.
