‘PM Modi wanted to contest polls from Ayodhya, was warned he’d be defeated…’: Rahul Gandhi in Ahmedabad

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra had wished to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Ayodhya. The Raebareli MP said that the senior politician had been warned against the same after his surveyors predicted that Modi would be defeated. Gandhi addressed a poll workers convention in Ahmedabad and insisted that the Congress would defeat BJP in Gujarat during the next election.

“PM Modi wanted to contest LS poll from Ayodhya, but his surveyors said he will be defeated and his political career will end. He said he has a direct connection with God…then why did BJP lose in Ayodhya in Lok Sabha elections?” Gandhi asked.

The Congress leader said that his party would wrest Gujarat away from the BJP and ‘make a new start’ from the western state. The BJP incidentally lost the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Ayodhya, in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls.

The Raebareli lawmaker claimed on Saturday that the INDIA bloc had defeated the movement started by LK Advani. For the uninitiated, the former BJP chief had carried out a rath yatra in 1990 to mobilise support for the movement to construct a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. 

“They (BJP) have challenged us by threatening us and damaging our office. Let me tell you that we are together going to break their government like they damaged our office. Take it in writing that Congress will contest in Gujarat and defeat Narendra Modi and BJP in Gujarat like we did in Ayodhya,” Gandhi said.

The remarks were a reference to the clash that broke out between members of the Congress and BJP outside the Opposition party’s headquarters earlier this week. Five police officials were injured as both sides indulged in stone pelting in the Paldi area of Ahmedabad amid uproar over Gandhi’s remarks on Hindus.

(With inputs from agencies)