Pink papers, corporate sector fuelling Modi's campaign, complains Sibal

The corporate sector is fuelling the campaign of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi because it wants “freebies” from him which he has extended in Gujarat, Law Minister Kapil Sibal said in an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN.

He also said the BJP has failed to reach a “credible” alliance in various states even as he termed the decision of Congress leader Jagdambika Pal to join the Opposition before elections as"good riddance." He used the same phrase to describe the fallout between the Congress and Bihar’s Ram Vilas Paswan.

As far the defections of Bhupinder Singh andInderjit Rao are concerned, Sibal pegged their decisions to personal conflicts these party members had with respective state governments and not with the central party management.

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“People, you see people look at their own prospects, " he said. “People think that they may not be able to succeed in their constituency. Some other party may offer them better constituency which they want, which the Congress will not give them. So don’t take this at face value.”

“Pink papers are with Modi, you know that. The corporate sector is with Modi. They are fuelling the campaign,” he said.

He was responding to suggestions that the Sensex has gone up after Modi was anointed as BJP’s PM candidate.

Asked whether he was making a charge, Sibal said he was not making a charge. “We know,” he said.

When asked whether the corporate sector or the media was being paid out by Modi, he said: “I did not say that.”

“Rs 2.50 lakh per plate for dinner. Is that not something which tells you what the business community wants? They want freebies from Modi as he has given them in Gujarat. That’s why they are backing him. The fact of the matter is the business community in Gujarat, especially groups to whom he has given freebies, is the one fuelling the campaign,” he said.

But he refused to name anyone. “I am not talking about any individual,” he said.

Responding to a question on people laughing off Rahul Gandhi’s claim that Congress would do better than the 2009 polls, Sibal said, “what he said, why he said, what was in his mind when he said so, whether it is right or wrong, I am not going to comment.

“But I am a little surprised people laughed at it, because that shows a sense of arrogance. And it is mostly the BJP who has become arrogant throughout the course of elections and dismissive of the Congress party,” he said.

Sibal asserted that despite media reports of a lackluster Congress performance in the upcoming elections he was confident of his party’s popularity. Talking about Delhi, where he stands from, he said the party would win at least three to four seats.

With inputs from PTI