Ahmedabad: Addressing a public rally in Bapunagar nagar area here, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the first phase of Gujarat Assembly Polls.

The Congress chief on Sunday said, “… A person like you (PM Modi) claims to be poor. I’m (Kharge) one of the untouchables. People drank tea from you but nobody would’ve had my tea …”

Veteran Congress leader Kharge labelled PM Modi as “leader of lies” and said, “If you say it for sympathy, people are smart. How many times will you lie?”

Mallikarjun Kharge also answered a popularly asked question by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is, “what has Congress done in the past 70 year?” He said, “the Congress kept the democracy alive in the nation.”

The Congress chief is one of the star campaigners of the grand-old party. It is the first public address of Mallikarjun Kharge for the Gujarat campaign so far.

Along with Kharge, United Progressive Front (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and Sachin Pilot.

#WATCH | Guj: Cong chief says,”…A person like you (PM Modi) claims to be poor. I’m (Kharge) one of the untouchables. People drank your tea, nobody would’ve had my tea…If you say it for sympathy, people are smart. How many times will you lie? He’s the leader of lies…”(27.11) pic.twitter.com/mfWFmNRiYc

— ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2022

Gujarat Assembly Polls Dates

The elections for the Gujarat Assembly will take place in two phases on December 1 and December 5, and the results will be declared on December 8. The voting will be conducted on a total of 182 seats.

In the Gujarat Assembly elections, 3,24,422 new voters will cast their vote for the first time. The total number of voting centers is 51,782.

Congress Has More Contenders This Time, Unlike 2017 

In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly Polls, the Congress was in close competition with the BJP. The grand-old party had also managed to gain a good number of votes but still could not form the government as it lost to the saffron party, which had won 99 seats.

With that score, the Congress had slight chances of winning the 2022 state elections. However, this time, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has emerged as one of the competitors as well.

AAP has been holding several rallies in the state while also keeping an eye on preparations for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls scheduled for December 4. AAP has introduced journalist turned politician Isudan Gadhvi as a Chief Ministerial face.