Ajmer: The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress on Saturday embarked on a campaign blitzkrieg for assembly elections, hours before the poll date announcement. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah attacked Congress for ‘mocking’ Army personnel, Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at the ruling party over Rafale deal and PNB scam.
“There would be no Indian who would not be proud of our jawans and the surgical strike they conducted. But look at Congress. They even mocked our jawans,” PM Modi said.
Meanwhile in Morena, Rahul Gandhi said, “Rafale deal given to HAL would’ve created hundreds of jobs in India. But PM Modi steals this from HAL and gives the ₹30,000Cr contract to Anil Ambani’s company.”
PM Modi’s rally in Rajasthan marks the conclusion of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s state-wide yatra ahead of assembly elections in the state. The CM’s ‘Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra’ which she had begun from Rajsamand’s Charbhujanath temple.
Earlier, Modi was scheduled to visit Brahma temple in Pushkar town but later restricted the visit to Ajmer rally only.
Raje, BJP state president Madan Lal Saini and other leaders reviewed on Friday the preparations for the rally that was held at Kayad Vishram Sthali on the outskirts of Ajmer where party leaders claimed nearly three lakh people had come.
Ajmer District Collector Arti Dogra had told reporters a day earlier that the prime minister will arrive in a helicopter at Kayad Vishram Sthali from Jaipur at 1300 hours and return to Jaipur after the programme. There is no schedule for Brahma temple visit in Pushkar, she asserted.
Amin Pathan, the chairman of Ajmer Dargah Committee, had said he has urged the members of the minority community to attend the Modi’s rally in large numbers. The state Primary and Secondary Education minister Vasudev Devnani, who represents Ajmer North assembly constituency, has been campaigning in the area and had invited people to attend the rally.
Ajmer district has eight assembly constituencies and seven of them are represented by BJP MLAs while the Congress has one seat of Nasirabad.
The ruling party, which had lost the Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency to Congress in bypolls held earlier this year, is trying to build a favourable atmosphere and mood among the voters by holding the rally of Modi, who had addressed an election rally in Ajmer in 2013 also.
The Congress had won the Ajmer Lok Sabha seat by defeating BJP’s Ramswaroop Lamba who is the son of former Ajmer MP Sanwar Lal Jat. The seat went to bypoll after the then sitting MP Sanwar Lal Jat died due to cardiac arrest last year. The assembly elections in Rajasthan are due later this year.