Congress to duck Modi vs Rahul contest
Photo credit Twitter @RahulGandhi
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, June 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the past week has begun campaigning on social media platform to target former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. The BJP’s one tagline is ‘iski pappu panthi jaati nahi’, which literally makes fun of Gandhi’s intellect.
The BJP is showing signs of once more banking on the Modi versus Rahul Lok Sabha campaign template, which had paid rich dividends to the saffron outfit in the 2019 general elections. This is on the premise that Modi still has massive mass following, while Gandhi has serious credibility issue in the eyes of the people for being considered for the prime ministerial position.
But the Congress strategists seem to have read the BJP script in advance. “The Congress will not let the BJP to turn the 20204 Lok Sabha elections into Modi versus Rahul battle. The general election will at best be fought on the plank of Modi versus issues. To make this happen, all that will be needed will be done by the Congress,” said a senior Congress functionary.
The Congress is drawing confidence that the BJP failed to gain from Modi’s overkill in selling his victim card in the Karnataka Assembly election after the prime minister in several public meetings claimed that he was being abused by the Opposition leaders.
Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge’s personal attack on Modi had backfired in the Gujarat election, but he came out unscathed when he made the snake remark against the prime minister in the Karnataka election. The Congress strategists are banking on the fact that the Brand Modi overkill by the BJP is now backfiring on the saffron outfit, which may even be seen in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress is bracing up to slot Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (national general secretary of the Congress) in specific roles and work out the ground-based election campaign by propping up the state leaders at the forefront in the general elections next year.
Rahul is gradually settling into the role of an arch rival of Modi, who is launching sharpest attack on the prime minister, while also working the grounds for the entitlement-based guarantees, which are being seen as the unfinished agenda of the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) during the term of the UPA government at the Centre. Vadra will continue to build her campaign among the women, and also take more visible roles in the party’s campaigns.
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