BJP remembers Sardar Patel before elections; says Congress

Opposition Congress today accused the ruling BJP of remembering Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel only at the time of elections and criticised the Narendra Modi government on development issues in Gujarat.
"BJP leaders only remember Sardar Patel before the elections. Their party workers were once caught stepping on the head of (a statue of) Sardar Patel to put up party posters. In the past they had opposed the naming of the city airport after Patel," Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankarsinh Vaghela, while taking part in debate on the motion of vote of thanks on Governor Kamla Beniwal's speech, said.
Commenting over the speech of the Governor, he said "the speech read out by the Gujarat Governor is cobwebs of words to mislead people, in which no achievements of the BJP government were visible."

"It seems that the state government has derived the idea of building the statue of unity (a gigantic statue of Sardar Patel) from the statue of liberty in the US," Vaghela said, commenting on a pet scheme of Modi's.
On Narmada project, Vaghela said the state government did not build the canals to take the dam waters to people, due to which enormous quantities of water was flowing into the sea.
On the policing in the state, he said that alleged (under-trial) terrorists dug a 200 meters long-tunnel in the (Sabarmati) jail (before it was discovered) and the entire police administration had no clue. The crime rate in Gujarat had increased under Modi government, he claimed.