Rahul Gandhi is the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the next national election as he is the president of the Congress party
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said that Rahul Gandhi is the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the next national election. Asked as to how he saw the Congress chief’s comment yesterday that he was ready to occupy the prime ministerial post if the Congress emerges as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha polls, Patel said, “The Congress president has already said something. It all depends on who will get how many seats. Our candidate will be Rahul Gandhi,”
“But ultimately it will all depend on the (Lok Sabha poll) results,” Patel told reporters here, maintaining that Gandhi’s claim did not make him “arrogant.”
“After all he (Gandhi) is the president of the Congress party…If we don’t get majority, others (alliance parties) will definitely be consulted. This is not arrogance. If he says he cannot become the prime minister, it will demoralise the party,” Patel added.In reply to a question, Patel alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “learnt from China” how to showcase a few big projects to create the impression that there is a lot of development.
“He has learnt it from China how to build big projects and showcase them as development. But if you go a bit deeper, there is no development. The Sabarmati river front, the bullet train, the Metro trains are sold as development. But if you go to villages, there is no development. Government schools are shutting down,” he alleged .patel exuded confidence that the Congress will be getting majority in the Karnataka Assembly elections by crossing the magic figure of 112.
He also said his party will continue to press the demand of use of ballot paper in the general elections. Patel led a delegation of Congress MLAs today who made a representation to governor O P Kohli “against the Gujarat government’s anti-farmer policies and attempts to subvert the Panchayati Raj Act”.
After the rejig in the Congress that put Rahul Gandhi at the head of the party, senior leader Ahmed Patel has shifted his focus to Gujarat issues. On Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha MP from the state expressed concern over various issues related to Gujarat and submitted a memorandum to Governor OP Kohli in Gandhinagar.
Patel was the political secretary to former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi but Rahul Gandhi has chosen Ashok Gehlot for the role. Patel was made the member of Gujarat State Waqf Board when the body was reconstituted by the state government last month.
On Wednesday, he raised issues related to compensation to farmers against land acquisition and subversion of Panchayati Raaj in the state. Patel had written a letter to PM Narendra Modi last week about the land acquisition issue. Nishit Vyas, Congress leader close to Patel, said: “It is not like Ahmed Patel started focusing on Gujarat issues recently. He is frequent to Gujarat and has been raising issues on different platforms as representative of the state.”
State party chief Amit Chavda, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani and other Congress MLAs were part of the delegation that submitted the memorandum to the governor. In the representation, the Congress alleged that the state government was undermining rights of farmers, farm labourers and tribals by acquiring large portions of land belonging to them.
The opposition, through the memorandum, alleged that the state government was applying Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was in direct contravention to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, to snatch away land from the poor. The party said the land-pooling scheme adopted for development of Dholera Special Investment Region was also in complete violation of Land Acquisition Act, 2013. The Congress delegation also accused the state government of usurping constitutional and statutory powers vested in districts, talukas and gram panchayats.
While speaking to media persons at Gandhinagar circuit house, Patel said: “We are not against development in the state, nor are we protesting against the projects, but the model of development of this government is totally hollow. If you go to villages, you will see that development has not reached there. No facility of health, education, drinking water or agriculture is present there, and they are projecting their development by showing riverfront of Ahmedabad.”
