Gujarat Polls: Rajnath attacks Rahul Gandhi; says 'BJP dousing fire lit by Congress'

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday hit out at Rahul Gandhi for accusing the BJP of spreading hatred and violence in the country, saying it was his party which is dousing the fire lit by the Congress. 

Addressing a party rally here, Singh posed several questions to Rahul Gandhi who made the charge against the BJP in his first speech after formally taking over as Congress President yesterday. 

"Congress has got a new president. I congratulate him. He says that BJP is responsible for the unrest in the country. I want to ask him who is behind the communal tensions, terrorism, Naxalism and unrest in Kashmir? 

"Who is behind the dynastic politics in the country? Let Rahul Gandhi know that it is BJP which is trying to douse the fire lit by Congress," Singh said. 

He also said the whole world knew that the BJP alone knows how to run the nation. 

"The Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh election results (tomorrow) will prove it again. Already exit polls have predicted that we are going to form the government in these two states," the senior BJP leader said. 

The BJP rally was organised as part of "Parivarthan Yatra" with the party leaders crisscrossing the state to "expose the misdeeds" of the Siddaramaiah government ahead of the Assembly polls, which are due early next year. 

Gandhi yesterday hit out at the BJP, accusing it of spreading hatred and violence in the country, and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking India back to the medieval times. 

In his first speech to party workers after formally assuming charge as the Congress president, he had said, "The Congress's respect for all Indians extends to even the BJP. We do not fight hate with hate. They crush voice, we allow the most vulnerable to sing. They defame, we respect and defend." 

"Today, the BJP people are trying to spread fire and violence in the entire country and only the force of lovable Congress workers and leaders can stop them. They break, we unite. They ignite fire, we douse it," he had said.