People will give befitting reply to Congress: BJP on criticism of its campaign

NEW DELHI: Stung by Congress' criticism of its poll campaign, BJP today said the people of the country will give a reply to the ruling party just as the people of Gujarat had given during the assembly polls in the state.

" Manmohan Singh did not dare to go to Gujarat but Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did. They used these words in the Vidhan Sabha polls also. The people of Gujarat gave a befitting reply to them. The people of the country will give a reply now also," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

He said Sonia Gandhi and Rahul used the same words in 2002, 2007 and 2012 Gujarat elections but the people of Gujarat rejected them.

Launching an attack on Rahul, the BJP leader said he "is not having the courage to hold big rallies and is instead holding small meetings where he is preaching his knowledge which is not based on facts. He tried to give that same knowledge today, people of the nation will give a reply."

The Congress leadership today criticised BJP's poll campaign saying it will explode like a "balloon" as had happened with the 'India Shining' 10 years ago.

Prasad also used the occasion to attack the Prime Minister, saying "if weakness means just holding on to the post, then I will not say he is weak...If holding on to a post is a sign of his strength, then I hail such strength."

The BJP leader said India's Prime Minister is the country's effective leader and he "should not just have the political but also the moral right".

He also reminded him that a few months before his retirement, when Rahul Gandhi had publicly "snubbed" him and dared to tear his Cabinet note (on convicted lawmakers) terming it as "nonsense", he should have resigned just as the former Foreign Secretary A P Venkateswaran had done after being publicly rebuked by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.