Modi Attacks Rahul Over Ready-To-Be-PM Remark     

Bangarpet: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today mocked Congress president Rahul Gandhi after he publicly declared his prime ministerial ambition, and wondered whether the country will ever accept such an "immature" and "naamdar (dynast)" leader for the post.

Taking his attack on the Gandhi family a notch further with barely a day left for the campaign to end, Modi said, "He (Rahul Gandhi) feels that the prime minister's chair is reserved for one family and no one can sit on it. He feels it is an ancestral right (paitruk hak)."

He said the Congress leader was not bothered about his party, its legacy, senior leaders, or the country. "From morning till evening, while sleeping and while awake, he has only thing in his mind and that is the prime minister's chair," he said addressing rallies at Bangarpet, Chikkamagalur, Belagavi and Bidar.

He said, "so new Congress President, Namdaar has yesterday declared that in 2019 he will be PM. Is this raje rajwade raj? Isn't this democracy? People will decide who will sit where. What he did was insult to democracy or not?" he asked the crowd at his concluding rally in Bidar.

Modi's attack on Gandhi at his rallies came a day after the Congress president said he was ready to occupy the prime minister's post if his party emerged as the largest party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The prime minister addressed 21 rallies while making six visits to the state where the BJP is going all out to unseat the Siddaramaiah government and regain power. The BJP had ruled the state from 2008 to 2013.

"The naamdar who does not have confidence in his alliance partners...who doesn't care for the Congress' internal democracy, whose arrogance has reached cloud seven, and is declaring himself that he would be the prime minister in 2019...will the country ever accept such an immature 'naamdar' leader?" Modi told election rallies.

"Yesterday in Karnataka and India's politics something happened. All of a sudden one person came and he declared...(he) did not care about others who are standing in the line. (He) did not care about other coalition partners." "There are leaders waiting for 40 years..He came all of a sudden..and said I will become the prime minister," the prime minister said during the final lap of his campaign blitz in poll-bound Karnataka, where voting will be held on May 12.

He asked the gathering whether it was not a reflection of the Congress president's "arrogance." Modi also wanted to know whether it did not show the state of internal democracy in the Congress party.

On the seizure of thousands of alleged fake voter ID cards and a lakh Form-6 (voter registration form) applications for the inclusion and transfer of voters from a flat here, Modi said, "Looking at defeat in front of them, as their tricks did not work, they have started a new game.

"I want to tell the people to be alert till May 12 (the day of voting)...The Congress shamelessly is using undemocratic means." Citing media reports, he alleged that by using thousands of fake voter ID cards, the Congress was attempting to win the election. "People of Karnataka will not forgive the Congress for this...One is caught... don't know how many such sins they have committed," he added.

About attempts to forge an anti-BJP front, Modi said "big, big meetings are happening, big, big stalwarts are meeting" to remove him from power, "but keeping them all in the dark Rahul Gandhi declared he will be the prime minister." "Doesn't this show the level of no-confidence within the (proposed) coalition?" he asked.

In his rally at Chikkamagaluru, Modi said with great difficulty, the Congress had secured 40-odd Lok Sabha seats and lost elections in most of the states.

"But look at their arrogance, it is on cloud seven. He (Rahul Gandhi) is coming here and claiming that he will become prime minister in 2019. If this is not arrogance what it is?" "This (Gandhi) family does not have anything to do with democracy...So it keeps looking for every opportunity to negate anything related to democracy,"he said.

Modi also attacked the Congress for "defaming" institutions such as the CAG, CBI, NIA, ED and RBI by calling them wrong, and saying only the Congress is right and trying to "break the morale" of the Army and security forces by raising questions about them.

"You might have seen in the last few elections the Congress is losing, and instead of accepting defeat by following democratic principles, they are lying by blaming EVMs," he said.

He said the Congress had defamed the Election Commission of India that is respected globally for its work. "They have started defaming the EC after they started seeing defeat.For them, the EVM are wrong, the Congress right, the Election Commission wrong, the Congress right," he said.

Concluding his campaign at Bidar in north Karnataka, Modi said people of the state had decided to punish the party in such a way that now the party has no chance of survival. "Congress would secure the lowest number of seats in the state's electoral history in Karnataka assembly polls," Modi said.

"It is clear to me that after Karnataka election under the leadership of Delhi's naamdar, the entire Karnataka Congress will go for Kailash Manasarovar Yatra," Modi said.

Modi was apparently referring to Gandhi's remarks on April 29 when he had said he would undertake the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, saying the thought struck him when he was travelling to the state in a chartered aircraft that suddenly came down by 8,000 feet recently.

Modi also flayed Gandhi over his visit to meet RJD leader Lalu Prasad "who has been punished by court on charges of corruption and is in jail." "Isn't this support for corruption?" he asked.

PTI