NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand CM
Harish Rawat has accused PM
Narendra Modi of targeting him as if "gnawed at by the failure to dislodge small fry", indicating that he had framed the
assembly election
campaign as a battle between him and the BJP strongman.
"What is it with the PM? I am small fry. It's like 'Gama pehelwan' challenging a small man. It is on for the last one year. They imposed President's rule... the hill people did not know about the CBI, and the Centre sent the agency there. Then, BJP announced it will undertake carpet bombing, the PM himself started the campaign. It is like he cannot tolerate that Rawat is still there," the CM said.
Rawat said he would approach the voters with a simple plea, "Why are Dilliwaley wasting so much energy on me? If I am bad, oust me. But if I am from among you, talking about you, then teach them a lesson."
Rawat ridiculed BJP for fielding turncoats in big numbers. "People are saying that BJP has become the B-team of Congress," he said. To accommodate
Congress rebels, he said, BJP had torn to shreds the PM's diktat against "dynasty" - citing saffron tickets for the children of turncoats. Rawat said the Congress leadership had decided against fielding relatives of MLAs and ministers, rebuffing senior party member Yashpal Arya and others. "My daughter was working in a constituency where Congress has never won but once the party issued the directive, I said ok. But Yashpal was seeking for his son a seat where Congress has a sitting MLA," he said about the state minister who joined BJP on Monday.
He mocked the defections as "BJP taking over the burden that Congress was carrying". "BJP slogan was 'jab se aaye Bahuguna, bhrashtachar bada sau guna'. They said the same things about Arya and the other ministers who have joined them... all have major corruption cases. People are watching," he said.
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