(Image source from: Is Rahul Gandhi unsure about winning Amethi seat?})
For the first time in ten years Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is in Amethi on polling day, belying his confidence to win the seat. Rahul had not visited his constituency on poll day in the 2009 election.
The 43-year-old Congress leader hit back at BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for distorting his sister Priyanka Gandhi's comment of "Neech Rajniti' (low-level politics) into a caste slur against him.
Rahul while refering to Modi's remark said "Neech karm hote hain, neech soch hoti hain, neech jaati nahin hoti (A person is judged by his deeds and thinking, not by his caste).
Gandhi's visit to Amethi on polling day is being interpreted as a sign of nervousness for the Congress after Modi's visit in the constituency during the last hours of campaigning.
On Monday, Narendra Modi addressed a rally at Amethi supporting the BJP candidate Smriti Irani. By campaigning in Amethi, Modi broke an unwritten code among top leaders to avoid stepping into each other's constituency.
BJP's PM candidate while campaigning for Irani said that he want to rebuild India and start doing it from Amethi.
Priyanka, 42, hit back at Modi for targeting the Gandhis in his speech saying he had insulted her martyred father on the soil of Amethi. She termed his speech as 'neech rajniti' for which each polling booth in Amethi would take revenge on Modi.
Modi in turn charged Priyanka with insulting him for his "backward caste".
Modi, while addressing rallies in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, said that he would not deny being born into a 'neechi jaati' (backward caste). At the same time he asked his audience if it was a crime to be born into a backward caste.
Uttar Pradesh has a sizeable backward caste population who vote primarily for Mayawati Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). It's this group of voters that Modi is hoping to attract towards BJP by his attack on Priyanka Gandhi.
Meanwhile, Mayawati lashed out at Narendra Modi for calling himself a backward caste, which she challed a poll gimmick to garner votes.
(Picture Source: politicalmirror.com)
(AW: Pratima Tigga)
