Modi, Rahul train guns in last leg of Uttarakhand campaign

With two more days left for election campaigning in Uttarakhand, political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress reached a crescendo on Thursday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi training guns at each other.

With an eye on the votes of defence personnel, Modi sought to paint the Congress as “anti-armed forces” and panned the state Congress programmes in honour of former Chief of Defence Staff late General Bipin Rawat, who died in a helicopter crash last year.

The former Army Chief was born in Garhwal district and hence has an instant connect with masses in the hill state, where defence personnel and their family members comprise almost one-third of total votes.

The Congress had earlier erected a huge cut-out of Rawat at a rally of Rahul, and in December took out the ‘Veer Gram Parakram Yatra’ across the state.

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Attacking Congress at a ‘Vijay Sankalp Sabha’ in Srinagar, Modi accused the opposition party of “abusing” Rawat as a “street side hooligan” when he was alive while using his cut-outs for votes now.

“The responsibility of giving the Congress a fitting reply in the coming polls for showing disrespect to General Rawat and using his name politically rests on the shoulders of the people of Uttarakhand. Won’t you give them a strong reply to deter them from repeating what they have done,” Modi asked the gathering.

He also hit out at the Congress, saying its leaders had “asked for proof of surgical strikes” and did nothing to get ‘one rank, one pension’ (OROP) for the forces.

Modi slammed the Congress of trying to destroy the culture and identity of the ‘dev bhoomi’ and over appeasement politics. The PM also reminded the Opposition party that it had “scored a duck” in last two Lok Sabha polls in Uttarakhand. “On December 14, you block corruption and dishonesty, you block dynastic politics and nepotism, you show the door to the politics of appeasement,” Modi said.

Also read: UP will turn into Kashmir, West Bengal or Kerala if BJP doesn't come to power: Yogi's warning to voters

Rahul addressed “Uttarakhand Swabhiman’ Rally in Haridwar and hit out at the ‘double-engine’ government of the BJP on issues like unemployment and lack of development.

The Congress leader said his party wants a government of the poor and unemployed and not that of a “king who sits in Delhi”. He said he is “not afraid of PM Narendra Modi or “his enforcement agencies - CBI and ED”.

The Congress, with is going to polls with the slogan “Teen Tigada, Kaam Bigada” (work is spoiled when three get involved), alleged that the BJP changed its chief ministers in Uttarakhand as they were all “corrupt”.

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