On Wednesday, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the opposition leader of Rajya Sabha and Congress’s crucial point person for Uttar Pradesh, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to strike communal separation with the ‘shamshan vs kabristan’ remark. Azad said that the PM failed to do so and that people have rejected this polarization.
But what sparked questions in the UP elections was the absence of Priyanka Gandhi from the campaign. Putting a rest to these remarks the AICC general secretary in charge of UP said that Priyanka has been part of the campaign more than ever. He said, “She played a bigger role than physical campaigning by managing and monitoring the election. Election management involves deployment of leaders, coordinating their movement and work across the state. This was done under her leadership in Delhi. She was deeply involved in UP elections.”
Speaking to a news daily as the polls are coming to an end, Azad said, “BJP and Modi did their level best but the majority community and the saner elements did not like their utterances, especially those from the PM. People of India are not ready to accept this talk of shamshan-kabristan.”
He also said that he spoke to Hindus and also those belonging to BJP, and said that they all shared the opinion that PM’s statement was uncalled for. He added, “A PM is the custodian of all religions. He belongs to all, those who voted for him and those who did not. Whoever advised the PM to make this statement has done a great disservice to the country. The PM should not be put in a position where he is seen as belonging to one community.” Speaking about one time arch rival and now an alliance, Samajwadi Party, the minister said that the partnership ‘could not be better’ and also “was better than any alliance that Congress ran in other states.”
The MP said that Priyanka was behind the planning of election campaign and she was absent from the rallys as she was the brains behind the campaign and made sure everything went well for her cousin, Rahul Gandhi’s presence.
