Rahul-Modi power play begins Gandhi Scion To Take On CM On Home Turf Today

Rahul-Modi power play begins

Gandhi Scion To Take On CM On Home Turf Today 

Ahmedabad: If the Gujarat elections are the semifinals for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, then the power-play overs start on Tuesday. The two prime-ministers-inwaiting — chief minister Narendra Modi and Congress scion Rahul Gandhi – will slog it out in Gujarat on Tuesday with public rallies.
    This is Rahul’s first visit to Gujarat after elections were announced.Hewill address two public meetings in Saurashtra, where Keshubhai Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party is threatening to erode BJP’s base, and one in Sanand, the auto hub which has contributed in the building of Brand Modi.
    Around the same time, Modiwill addressthree public meetings in Saurashtra – at Savarkundla, Dhrangadhra and Surendranagar — before moving on to Dholka and Nadiad later in the day.
    Interestingly, Rahul’s public meeting at Sanand clashes with that of L K Advani’s at around the same time.
    The Gandhi scion has come to Gujarat thrice in the pastfive years, the last being one-and-ahalf years agowhen he attended a Youth Congress workshop near Gandhinagar.
    Rahul, along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi,hasbeen Modi’s favourite punching bag. In the run-up tothe parliamentary polls of 2009, the chief minister had hit out at the dynastic politics and equated Rahul to an aquarium fish, which cannot weather the rough seas. Recently, while addressing multiple rallies through 3D projection, Modi had said Rahul was not campaigning in Gujarat because he was scared of taking responsibility for his party’s defeat in the polls.
    “A Congress leader from whom they have big expectationshadcampedin Uttar Pradesh for 12 months. But, people kicked them out of the state. This ‘precious’ leader of the Congress has not dared to campaign here (in Gujarat) for assembly elections,” Modi had said. In the absence of any wave in favour of the BJP, the chief minister is eagerly waiting for a lose ball from the Congress. Sonia Gandhi’s ‘maut ka saudagar’ remark in the 2007 assemble elections had helped him turn around an otherwise dull campaign and sweep the polls. This time around, both Sonia and PM Manmohan Singh have played it safe and kept it tight to Modi.