Karnataka polls: Narendra Modi attacks Rahul Gandhi over 'ready to be PM' remark

Voting in Karnataka is to be held on May 12.

Pic courtesy: Twitter/@narendramodi

Bangarpet/Chikkamagaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday mocked Congress president Rahul Gandhi after he publicly declared his prime ministerial ambition and wondered whether the country will ever accept such an "immature" and "naamdar (dynast)" leader for the post.

Taking his attack on the Gandhi family a notch further with barely a day left for the campaign to end, Modi said, "He (Rahul Gandhi) feels that the prime minister's chair is reserved for one family and no one can sit on it. He feels it is an ancestral right (paitruk hak)."

He said the Congress leader was not bothered about his party, its legacy, senior leaders, or the country.

"From morning till evening, while sleeping and while awake, he has only thing in his mind and that is the prime minister's chair," he said.

Modi's attack on Gandhi at his rallies in Bangarpet and Chikkamagaluru came a day after the Congress president said he was ready to occupy the prime minister's post if his party emerged as the largest party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, making known his ambition for the topmost executive post.

"The naamdar who does not have confidence in his alliance partners...Who doesn't care for the Congress' internal democracy, whose arrogance has reached cloud seven, and is declaring himself that he would be the prime minister in 2019...Will the country ever accept such an immature 'naamdar' leader?" Modi told election rallies.

"Yesterday in Karnataka and India's politics something happened. All of a sudden one person came and he declared... (he) did not care about others who are standing in the line. (He) did not care about other coalition partners.

"There are leaders waiting for 40 years... He came all of a sudden... And said I will become the prime minister," the PM said during the final lap of his campaign blitz in poll-bound Karnataka, where voting will be held on May 12.

He asked the gathering whether it was not a reflection of the Congress president's "arrogance."

He also wanted to know whether it did not show the state of internal democracy in the Congress party.

On the seizure of thousands of alleged fake voter ID cards and a lakh Form-6 (voter registration form) applications for the inclusion and transfer of voters from a flat here, Modi said, "Looking at defeat in front of them, as their tricks did not work, they have started a new game.

"I want to tell the people to be alert till May 12 (the day of voting)... The Congress shamelessly is using undemocratic means."

Citing media reports, he alleged that by using thousands of fake voter ID cards, the Congress was attempting to win the election.

"People of Karnataka will not forgive the Congress for this... One is caught... Don't know how many such sins they have committed," he added.

About attempts to forge an anti-BJP front, Modi said "big, big meetings are happening, big, big stalwarts are meeting" to remove him from power, "but keeping them all in the dark Rahul Gandhi declared he will be the prime minister."

"Doesn't this show the level of no-confidence within the (proposed) coalition?" he asked.

In his rally at Chikkamagaluru, Modi said with great difficulty, the Congress had secured 40-odd Lok Sabha seats and lost elections in most of the states.

"But look at their arrogance, it is on cloud seven. He (Rahul Gandhi) is coming here and claiming that he will become prime minister in 2019. If this is not arrogance what it is?"

"This (Gandhi) family does not have anything to do with democracy...So it keeps looking for every opportunity to negate anything related to democracy,"he said.

Modi also attacked the Congress for "defaming" institutions such as the CAG, CBI, NIA, ED and RBI by calling them wrong, and saying only the Congress is right and trying to "break the morale" of the Army and security forces by raising questions about them.

"You might have seen in the last few elections the Congress is losing, and instead of accepting defeat by following democratic principles, they are lying by blaming EVMs," he said.

He said the Congress had defamed the Election Commission of India that is respected globally for its work.

"They have started defaming the EC after they started seeing defeat. For them, the EVM is wrong, the Congress right, the Election Commission wrong, the Congress right," he said.

He said the Congress had also "doubted" the World Bank and global credit rating agencies by saying "Modi has bought these agencies."

"The Congress is playing a dangerous game and I want to alert our citizens. The Congress' former president (Sonia Gandhi) and son (Rahul Gandhi) from the time they got bail in Rs 5,000 crore scam (National Herald case), from then on they have started attacking the country's judiciary," Modi said.

Continuing his tirade against the Congress, he called it a "deal party."

Modi said during Manmohan Singh's tenure as the PM, the remote control of the government was with Sonia Gandhi, but in the four years of his (NDA) rule, it was with the people.

He also said the "Congress culture, communalism, casteism, crime, corruption and contract system" were the "six Cs destroying" Karnataka's future.

Modi told the crowd that it was now Karnataka's turn to bid "goodbye" to the Congress.