Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi issued a “weather report” on Monday, predicting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would “rain sops” in Gujarat during his public rally in the poll-bound State.
“Weather report: Ahead of elections, it will rain sops in Gujarat,” he said on his Twitter handle, using the phrase “ jumlon ki barish (rain sops)” in his Hindi tweet.
Rahul also tagged a report headlined: “
The Congress leader’s dig at Modi comes in the wake of speculation that the Prime Minister may announce a host of sops for poll-bound Gujarat.
Both the Congress and the Left have accused the BJP and the Centre of “putting pressure” on the Election Commission to delay the announcement of Assembly elections in Gujarat.
“Election announcement for Gujarat has been delayed because someone will go there like Santa Clause and announce yet another stream of promises that will never be fulfilled,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said on the day the election dates for Himachal Pradesh were announced.
The Congress has alleged that if the Election Commission had announced Assembly elections in Gujarat along with Himachal Pradesh, the model code of conduct, which comes into force with immediate effect, would leave no scope for the BJP to announce any sops for people in Gujarat.
Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh will be held on November 9 and results announced on December 18. The Gujarat elections have not been announced yet, though Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti has said they will be held before December.