Rahul`s vision limited to `balloons and toffees`: Chhattisgarh CM

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi`s vision is "limited to balloons and toffees" and his only USP in politics is that he "belongs to the Gandhi family", says Chhattisgarh`s Chief Minister Raman Singh.

New Delhi: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi`s vision is "limited to balloons and toffees" and his only USP in politics is that he "belongs to the Gandhi family", says Chhattisgarh`s Chief Minister Raman Singh.

As the war of words intensifies between BJP and Congress in the ongoing polls, 61-year-old Singh said the Gandhi scion was "very immature" in politics.

Referring to Congress` poor results in the states where Rahul had led the party`s Assembly poll campaigns, he said, "(Rahul`s) debacle in recent Assembly polls (in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi) has proved that he is very immature when it comes to politics.
"His only USP is that he belongs to the Gandhi family," Singh told PTI in an email interview.

He said that Congress would not be able to cross double- digit figure in the Lok Sabha elections even if it declared Rahul to be its prime ministerial candidate.

Chhattisgarh has 11 parliamentary constituencies. Polling in the Naxal-hit Bastar seat was held on April 10 while three other constituencies voted on April 17. The remaining seven constituencies go to polls on April 24.
"As (Narendra) Modiji says, Rahul`s vision is limited to balloons and toffees. He has no vision for the country," the Chief Minister averred.

Modi, the BJP`s prime ministerial candidate, had recently hit out at Gandhi for frequently using words like "balloon" and "toffees" to criticise him.

At various election rallies, Rahul has said BJP`s campaign "balloon" will burst like its `India Shining` drive in 2004 while dubbing the `Gujarat model` as a "toffee model".

Rahul has also said that like Gujarat, the Chhattisgarh development model too was a "myth".

Asked which was the best development model out of the ones being followed in Gujarat, Bihar, neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Singh said no fixed model could work for the people of the country.
"For a complex and diverse country like ours, there can`t
be a fixed model. Any model which adds to the all-round development of a state is good," Singh said, adding that he was ready to implement the successful schemes and programmes of other states in Chhattisgarh.

"Other states, too, are emulating Chhattisgarh`s food security model. Our sole objective is to see Chhattisgarh among the top three developed states of the country," he said.

The chief minister also took a dig at Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh.

"Digvijay Singh was a leader with tremendous potential, but alas, he has reduced himself to such a stage that even in his own party, his remarks are not taken seriously," he said.

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