GUWAHATI: Even as the BJP is preparing to hold a massive rally to be addressed by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on February 8 here, Assam chief minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday said that the Congress would counter ‘dictatorial’ Modi not through holding rally but in the battle of ballots.
Gogoi said that Modi’s dictatorial attitude would do no good for the democracy and people of Assam were watching him closely.
“Modi has turned the BJP to a one-man’s show by sidelining leaders like Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely. He has turned battle to Modi versus other political parties instead of BJP versus other parties,” Gogoi said.
The Congress is planning to hold a massive rally for empowerment of youth and women in Guwahati on February 16 next to counter Modi’s rally.
Gogoi lambasted the BJP for supporting an Independent candidate backed by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a political party of religious minority groups in Assam, in the February 7 Rajya Sabha polls in Assam.
“The BJP’s decision to support the AIUDF backed candidate in Rajya Sabha election has exposed the secret understanding between the BJP and the AIUDF which apparently stand at diagonally opposite poles on the basis of political ideology,” Gogoi said.
“We are not giving much importance to Rajya Sabha polls. But we are going to capitalize in a big way in Lok Sabha election over the exposed unholy nexus between the BJP and the AIUDF,” Gogoi said.
The BJP has opposed the now scrapped Illegal Migrants (Detection by Tribunal) Act while the AIUDF was borne out of the scrapping of the IM(DT) Act.
The BJP maintains that there are lakhs of illegal migrants from Bangladesh in Assam while the AIUDF alleges harassment of Muslims in Assam in the name of detection of illegal migrants.
But both the parties are now supporting the same Independent candidate in Rajya Sabha election in Assam.
