Ahmedabad, November 25: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said the Aam Aadmi Party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was a "political freelancer".
Speaking at a press conference at the BJP's media centre here, Prasad said AAP would be rejected by the people of Gujarat where two-phase Assembly polls are scheduled for December 1 and 5. Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022: 26 BJP Leaders Address 56 Public Rallies in Single Day.
He also attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his comments against freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar. "Kejriwal went to Himachal Pradesh during elections. He also went to Uttarakhand and Goa during elections, but AAP eventually lost (in those states). Now, he is in Gujarat," Prasad said. Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022: Full List of BJP Candidates and Their Constituency Names.
"Gujarat has always seen two-party election contests between the Congress and BJP. While BJP wins, Congress loses. The third front has always failed in Gujarat. Since Kejriwal has come to Gujarat now, I want to call him a political freelancer," he said.
The former Union minister also attacked AAP for `violence' in Punjab, where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is in power. "Punjab chose AAP. But today the state is suffering from instability, separatism and terrorism within just a few months (of AAP coming to power). People are killed openly. Because the separatist elements which were contained in the past are now fearless as they know the people in power will not say anything," he claimed.
Prasad also claimed the Congress had ignored and insulted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. "The Congress claims Sardar Patel belonged to their party. If that is true, then why was he conferred the Bharat Ratna 41 years after his death? I want to tell Rahul Gandhi, since he has embarked on Bharat Jodo Yatra, the country would have united if he had chosen to connect himself with the legacy of these great freedom fighters," Prasad said.
"The way Rahul Gandhi talks about Veer Savarkar, I want him to spend two days in the Andaman jail where Savarkar was imprisoned for nearly 11 years," he said.
Gandhi, during the Maharashtra leg of his nationwide march, had claimed Savarkar apologised to the British out of fear, in the process betraying other stalwarts of the freedom struggle. Prasad went on to say Gandhi was avoiding Gujarat as he knows the Congress will lose.
"The Congress is not in power because the party has always insulted great leaders of Gujarat, be it Patel, Morarji Desai or Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the former Union minister added.
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