Gadkari faints, Capital chokes as BJP rallies

NEW DELHI: If BJP president Nitin Gadkari wanted the anti-price raise rally held in the Capital on Wednesday to advertise the popular anger over the issue and his party’s strength, he did succeed, but had to pay a price.

As he led the rallyists to Jantar Mantar as part of the party’s plan to gherao Parliament, he fainted, unable to bear the scorching heat.

The massive rally, the first big show of strength organised by the BJP president since taking over the reins of the party in December last, saw over a lakh people converging on the Ram Leela Grounds in the heart of the city, causing severe traffic jams and hold-ups in various parts since the early hours of the day.

Long queues of vehicles were seen in the main arteries for hours together, forcing people to battle the heat in the sweltering weather. A semblance of normalcy could only be restored by the evening.

Mr Gadkari, who fainted while on his way to Jantar Mantar atop a `rath’ after addressing the rallyists at the Ram Leela Grounds, was later shifted to a car and whisked away.

His party colleagues, including Mr L K Advani, Mr Rajnath Singh, Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Arun Jaitley subsequently courted arrest, only to be released soon after, while Mr Ananth Kumar, who was the rally’s convenor, Mr Vijay Goyal, Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu, Mr Anurag Thakur and Ms Smriti Malhotra-Irani were allowed to proceed to Jantar Mantar.

Mr Gadkari, while addressing the public meeting earlier in the day, blamed the soaring prices to the Manmohan Singh government’s faulty economic policies, and said that the issue had become synonymous with the Congress’ date with power.

``Whenever Congress comes to power, there is a dramatic increase in the prices of essential commodities,’’ he said, reminding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of their election-eve promise that food prices would be brought down within the 100 days of their party being voted back to power.

``But the poor people are committing suicide as the Congress-led UPA government completes one year of its second consecutive stint in power,’’ the BJP president said.

Accusing the government of following ``wrong economic policies,’’ the BJP chief said he had posed 14 questions to the prime minister on price rise, but the ruling party failed to come up even with a single reply. ``Nobody is in a position to offer a proper reply to these questions. They have been pursuing wrong economic policies and bad governance,’’ he maintained.

Mr Advani, in his address, argued that prices of essential commodities had risen between 100 to 200% since the UPA first took office six years ago. “This has happened because of bad management and corruption,” he said.