Stop Imagining That You Can Wipe Out Congress: Ashok Gehlot To Modi After Civic Polls Win

Buoyed by the massive victory in the urban bodies elections, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he and his party BJP should stop dreaming about making India Congress-free as the party's DNA matches with the country and its cultural values. The Rajasthan CM said that people have realised the difference between the saying and doing of BJP leaders and that they have now started rejecting them.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah used to talk about Congress-free India but after Gujarat Assembly elections, elections were held in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and recently in Maharashtra and Haryana, where people have taught them a lesson," he told reporters in New Delhi.

"India cannot be free from Congress because the DNA of the Congress matches with India's culture, tradition and values. Congress got India freedom. Its leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru were jailed. The struggle was fought in the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi,"Gehlot said.

He said that where India was standing today is because of the contribution of the Congress party. "Modi goes to foreign countries and gets respect, it is because of the achievement of the country in the last 70 years," he added.

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Slamming the Modi government over the poor state of India's economy during the last five years, Gehlot said people were losing jobs and the ruling party should control the situation. "People have understood the situation (about economy) which is developing in the country. People are losing jobs, trade and business is getting affected. How much will (people) tolerate this. We all are nationalist but the way they are projecting and doing things, people are not going to be with them now," he said.

Commenting on the results of 49 urban local bodies which were declared in Rajasthan on Tuesday, the chief minister said the results were as expected and people have reposed faith in the government's functioning and in the party. The Congress won 965 out of the 2,105 wards in the urban local bodies, leaving the BJP trailing at 736, according to the results declared by the state election office.