Prakash Javadekar says Rahul Gandhi's presence is only on Twitter, lacks mass support

New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday poked fun at Rahul Gandhi, saying it has won everywhere the Congress leader has campaigned and claimed that his presence was only on Twitter. Union minister Prakash Javadekar also cited his party’s performance in the local body polls in Maharashtra and Gujarat to assert that it remained the people’s choice for development across the country. Javadekar made light of the Congress vice president’s campaign in Gujarat, saying the BJP won wherever he went. [caption id=“attachment_3514513” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] “Rahul Gandhi is only on Twitter. His politics is confined to tweets. If you have mass support, then tweets are a symbol of strength, but doing politics through tweets is political bankruptcy,” he told reporters here. He said that in Maharashtra, ‘sarpanches’ (village heads) were for the first time elected in a direct election and the BJP won more than 50 percent of the seats. The party bagged 1,457 seats, followed by the Congress with 301 seats, Shiv Sena 222 and the NCP 194. Though elections were not held on the basis of party symbols, political parties, including the BJP, had announced their choice of candidates in advance to highlight the affiliation of winners. In Gujarat, six of the eight local body seats were won by the BJP in by-elections compared to two it had bagged earlier, while the Congress’ tally of fell to two from six, Javadekar said. The HRD minister, who hails from Maharashtra, noted that the BJP had won most seats in urban body polls earlier too and asserted that it had become the first choice of the farmers, labourers, youths and the poor, besides people living in the the urban areas. “The BJP is winning everywhere. People across the country are supporting us for development as they have faith in the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership,” he said. Asked about Gandhi’s reported comments that the RSS discriminated against women as the Hindutva organisation did not have them in its shakhas, he said the Congress leader did not believe in acquiring knowledge or otherwise he would have found out that the RSS has a women’s wing. To a question about the Uttar Pradesh government’s plans to install a statue of Lord Rama on the banks of the river Saryu when funds were required in several critical fields, he said the state government has money for waiving loans of farmers as well as for education and taking care of the people’s welfare. Javadekar, who is the BJP’s in-charge for Karnataka Assembly polls, also accused the Congress of working to divide various communities to win, a reference to the demand by a section of Lingayats that their caste be recognised as a separate religion.