Had Vajpayee been active, he too would've been sidelined: Rahul

Mathura: Making a scathing attack on BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi today accused him of double speak. “Adani has been brought to the front by placing L K Advani, Jaswant Singh etc in the backseat. Had Atal ji (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) been active, he too would have been sidelined,” Rahul Gandhi said while addressing an election meeting here in favour of RLD candidate Jayant Chaudhary. “Adani (Group) has been offered 45,000 acres of land at Re 1 per metre. Now, he is selling it at Rs 800 per metre,” he alleged. [caption id=“attachment_1492047” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Rahul Gandhi accused BJP of non-cooperation over the passage of Women Reservation Bill, saying it could not get through the parliament because of the saffron party. “This election is a fight between two schools of thought. While one believes only in Hinduism, the other believes in uniting Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian. “The country would flourish if combined efforts are made for its development,” Rahul said. Raking up local issues, Rahul said, “In spite of getting financial support from Japan, the Yamuna could not be cleaned because of non-cooperation of Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh. Congress would make effort to clean the river when it comes to power,” Rahul said. He said though BJP talked about making women powerful in its banners, but it was more important to give them regard. “Power without prestige is useless,” he said. “My government would open 200 women police stations and enroll 25 percent women in police,” he stated. “For employment of the youth, Mathura would be connected with Delhi-Mumbai-Mangalore corridor and Delhi Calcutta corridor. “We want that instead of importing electronic goods from China, we should export them to China and Japan,” he said. Talking about achievements of his government in the farming sector, Rahul said, “Not only loan to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore (to farmers) was waived, but after change in the acquisition law, now farmers are offered four times more money than the market price if their land is acquired,” he said. RLD Chief Ajit Singh, who was also present in the rally, also hit out at Modi. “There will be riots in villages if Modi would become Prime Minister. It would ruin the country,” he said. Questioning the source of funds for BJP’s campaigns, Singh said, “BJP has spent ten thousand crores on different channels etc. It should explain the source from where the money has come.” Saying the Prime Minister of the country should have a vision, he said, “Instead of showing vision, Modi is behaving like a dictator and has even sidelined leaders like Advani, Jaswant Singh,” RLD chief alleged. PTI