Senior Congress leader in Haryana Kuldeep Bishnoi Friday said by bringing former premier Rajiv Gandhi into the picture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have shown how "frustrated" they are.
Modi at a rally in Uttar Pradesh last Saturday targeted Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, saying, "Your father (Rajiv Gandhi) was termed Mr Clean by his courtiers, but his life ended as 'bhrashtachari' no 1 (corrupt number 1)."
Besides, in a sensational charge, the prime minister Wednesday accused the Gandhi family of using warship INS Viraat as its "personal taxi" when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister.
Reacting to the comments, Bishnoi, a three-time MLA whose Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) was a BJP ally in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the state, told PTI here: "It is very unfortunate the way Mr Modi has spoken about Rajiv ji. It shows his frustration and shows how frustrated the BJP is. They know that people are going to vote them out for their non-performance".
"The BJP promised moon to the people five years ago, but failed to keep its various promises including on giving 2 crore jobs to youth, promises made to farmers and other sections," he said.
In the last assembly polls, the HJC fought separately and was reduced to just two seatsKuldeep Bishnoi won from his father's traditional Adampur seat of Hisar while his wife Renuka Bishnoi won from Hansi.
The HJC later merged with the Congress.
Bishnoi, whose son Bhavya is the Congress candidate from Hisar Lok Sabha seat, claimed that people have made up their mind to bring a Congress-led government to power at the Centre.
"At the national level, see what is the state of economy today, value of the rupee has gone down, prices are soaring, farmers in thousands have committed suicide, unemployment is at its highest peak in over four decades, demonetisation dealt a blow to economy and the way they rolled GST broke the backbone of traders," he alleged.
In this scenario, Bishnoi said, people are "fed up with the BJP and want a Congress-led government to return to power".
"They should be fighting election on (real) issues rather than in any individual's name. The prime minister should be telling people the fate of the promises made five years ago rather than going on attacking somebody who is not in this world or attacking a particular family," he said.
On Hisar, Bishnoi, son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, hit out at the Manohar Lal Khattar government for "betraying people" of the parliamentary constituency.
"Hisar got no big project, they undertook no development here and neglected it... People want to once again see return of Chaudhary Bhajan Lal's era and they are fully backing Bhavya (his son) this time," he claimed.
The Hisar parliamentary seat will see a contest between sitting MP Dushyant Chautala, BJP's Brijendra Singh and Bhavya Bishnoi of the Congress.
Brijendra Singh is son of Union minister Birendra Singh.
Haryana, with 10 Lok Sabha seats, goes to polls in the sixth phase on May 12.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
