On Thursday, prime minister Narendra Modi took part in a more than 30 km long roadshow in a whirlwind campaign tour in his home state Gujarat, and addressed three rallies while asking people to teach a lesson to the Congress in the Assembly elections following its Ravan jibe for him. Addressing a rally at Kalol in Panchmahal district, Modi said he respected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, but it was the opposition party’s high command which compelled Kharge to use such jibes.
Voting for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats was held on Thursday, while that in the remaining 93 seats including 16 of Ahmedabad city will take place on Dec 5. Kharge, at a rally in Ahmedabad city on Monday, had said the prime minister asks people to vote looking at his face in all elections. “Are you 100-headed like Ravan”, he said.
The poor, tribals and Other Backward Class communities were not given priority in education, health and industrial sector by Congress governments, said Modi. The opposition party also did not support a tribal woman becoming the country’s president, and hence it fielded a candidate against Droupadi Murmu in the presidential election earlier this year.
The prime minister waved at the crowd, standing in a specially designed vehicle. The roadshow was to pass through the eastern part of Ahmedabad and end at 10C circle in the Chandkheda area on the western side of the city, covering 13 constitencies in Ahmedabad city and Gandhinagar-south.