Bitter end to C’garh campaign

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 18

Curtains closed on the second and final phase of Chhattisgarh election campaign on Sunday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacking the Gandhis for running a "remote control government" in the past and disregarding the Congress' non-Gandhi president Sitaram Kesri, a Dalit.

Hours after the PM said in Chhattisgarh's Mahasamund that the Congress “locked down a Dalit party president Sitaram Kesri in a bathroom” and later "threw him out on the footpath", the party rebutted the PM.

Congress leader Manish Tewari tweeted: “Kesri was a Bania OBC from Bihar and not a Dalit, but when has PM allowed facts or truth to stand in the way? Kesri was treated with due respect by one and all in Congress.”

Urging the Chhattisgarh voters to prevent Congress from coming to power, the PM said Congress was a party that unceremoniously ousted a Dalit president Sitaram Kesri to enable Sonia Gandhi to assume charge.

"The whole nation knows that Sitaram Kesri, a Dalit from a marginalized community, was not allowed to complete his five-year term as Congress president and was unceremoniously ousted. The Congress can't tolerate a Dalit even for two years. So how can it appoint a non-Gandhi president for five years?" asked the PM.

"The remote was in the hands of a family that was afraid of the BJP," PM said alleging that the Congress' first family "thought only about its welfare and not of the country".

In another blistering attack, the PM alleged that the Congress played "backdoor games with terrorists but the brave BJP government has ended that".

He was speaking with reference to a high voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir panchayat polls despite terror threats and in Bastar recently notwithstanding boycott calls given by naxals. I congratulate the people of Bastar, the PM told a rally where he explained "lack of development in Chhattisgarh" in terms of non-cooperation of the Central Congress government with the state until 2014 when the BJP came.

The final phase of Chhattisgarh election for 72 Assembly segments in 19 districts will be held on Tuesday.

Jawan killed in blast

• A jawan of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was killed and two others injured in an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Sunday
• The incident took place between Bhejji and Elarmadgu villages when a team of the DRG, the state police's anti-Naxal force, was conducting a search operation, Sukma SP Abhishek Meena said PTI