No Courage to Contest LS Polls: PM's Veiled Dig at Sonia Gandhi Over Rajya Sabha Entry in Nanded

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, April 20, launched a veiled attack at former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi while addressing a poll rally in Maharashtra's Nanded. Prime Minister said that the senior Congress leaders have lost the courage to contest elections and have hence taken the safe route to Rajya Sabha. PM said that the leaders of the Congress party have lost the courage to contest elections and have accepted defeat even before the results. 

In an apparent refence to Sonia Gandhi, PM Modi said, “Some Congress leaders who regularly got elected, are not even contesting the Lok Sabha elections this time. They have taken the Rajya Sabha to reach the Parliament instead.” 

Prime Minister said that the INDI alliance is not even getting candidates to field in the Lok Sabha elections, nor are their senior leaders campaigning this time. “Congress leaders have accepted their defeat. They don't have candidates to contest elections. Leaders of this alliance are fighting among themselves. Can you trust those who can’t even trust each other?” said the Prime Minister. 

Congress’ ‘shehzade’ (referring to Rahul Gandhi) is also witnessing trouble in Wayanad. They are waiting for the polls scheduled for April 26 in Wayanad. As soon as the polling will end, they will label that place safe (safe seat) for him and then he will go and contest from somewhere else, said PM Modi. 

 Sonia Gandhi Takes Rajya Sabha Route 

Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi took oath as the Rajya Sabha MP on April 4 declaring that she quits electoral politics. She represents Rajasthan in the Council of States by filling the seat that fell vacant after 91-year-old former prime minister Manmohan Singh completed his tenure on April 3. With this, second member of the Gandhi family to enter the Rajya Sabha after former prime minister and her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, who had a two-and-a-half-year tenure (from August 1964 to February 1967) as a member of the Upper House.

Sonia Gandhi has always been a member of the Lok Sabha, and completed five terms in the Lower House of the Parliament since 1999. In that year, she had contested from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi, her first general election after taking over as the president of the Congress a year earlier. In 2004, she won the election from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and has been representing it since then. The Congress is yet to announce its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from both Amethi and Rae Bareli seats.