This story is from March 24, 2019

At Malda, Rahul slams both Modi & Mamata

At Malda, Rahul slams both Modi & Mamata
Chanchal (Malda): Congress president Rahul Gandhi took on both PM Narendra Modi and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in his first poll campaign meeting in Bengal on Saturday, elaborating on his pet “chowkidar chor hai” theme while criticizing the “one-person show in Bengal”.
Rahul’s anti-Trinamool barbs in Malda, coming more than two months after Congress joined other anti-BJP parties in Trinamool’s “United India” rally in Kolkata in January, indicates a no-holds-barred approach in pockets of Bengal where the Congress still retains a significant voter base.

The Congress chief also reminded the rally of the “gaddar” who left the party to join Trinamool. “A person has ditched you. She is an old Congress candidate. I have come to remind you that such a person should not have a place in this Congress fort,” Rahul said, without taking turncoat Mausam Noor’s name. Noor, Congress stalwart ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s niece, defected to Trinamool a few weeks ago.
Gandhi did not spare Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee in his speech at the Malda rally on Saturday. “It’s a one-person show in Bengal. The CM takes her own decisions, does not consult anyone,” he said. He also slammed the previous CPM regime.
The rally at the Kalambagan ground in Malda’s Chanchal witnessed uproarious scenes as the enthusiastic crowd broke through the bamboo barricades around the VIP enclosure, indicating that the Congress was up for a fight in its old fiefdom despite Noor’s defection.
Rahul’s speech mixed his usual anti-Modi narrative, including the government’s record in employment generation and farm loan waiver, and criticism of the Bengal government. “Modi played Anil Ambani’s chowkidar and filled his pockets. Have Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Mamata Banerjee waived your farm loans? Congress-run governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have done that. Chhattisgarh has fixed the minimum support price for paddy at Rs 2,500 a quintal (Bengal’s is Rs 1,750),” the Congress president said.

He took note of the predicament that Congress workers at the grassroots faced during (first) Left and (then) Trinamool regimes. “You have seen the CPM for decades. There was no development then; everything went to the organisation. Now they go to an individual. Congress workers were beaten up during the CPM regime. They face the same situation now,” he said. “You have fought against odds all through. We are coming to power in Delhi and we will see to it,” the Congress president said.
The 40-minute speech did not even bear a mention of any united, anti-BJP opposition. “It is a battle of two ideologies. The Congress is on one side and the BJP/RSS and Narendra Modi are on the other. The Congress stands for unity, the other camp stands for intolerance and hatred. Modi is the chowkidar of the rich, we promise minimum guaranteed income for the poor. We will go for a direct transfer of funds to accounts of people below a certain income level after we come to power in Delhi. You don’t have to shell out money from your pocket for hospital treatment and higher education. We will set up the best government hospitals, colleges and universities in the state,” Rahul said, promising fruit-processing units for Malda’s mango growers.
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