Rahul Gandhi ‘blackmailed’ voters with fake narrative: Athawale on BJP’s reverses in LS polls

PTI, Jul 19, 2024, 5:28 PM IST

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi “blackmailed” voters by creating a fake narrative that the BJP would change the Constitution if it won 400 Lok Sabha seats, leading to losses to the ruling party in several states.

The Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment also said despite such moves Prime Minister Narendra Modi emerged victorious and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance got a clear majority with 292 seats.

“In the 2019 general elections the BJP got 303 seats and the NDA got 353 seats. On the basis of work done in the last five years, PM Modi gave the slogan of ‘abki baar 400 paar’. However, the opposition united just for the sake of defeating the PM and spread fake narratives. Rahul Gandhi blackmailed voters but he failed,” he told reporters.

Asked how Gandhi blackmailed voters, Athawale said, “He created a narrative that the BJP will change the Constitution and abolish reservations if it won 400 Lok Sabha seats. People were swayed by this fake narrative and we lost seats in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal,” the senior Dalit leader and Republican Party of India (A) chief asserted.

The PM considers the Constitution his mother and the BJP and NDA will never change the Constitution, he asserted.

“However, despite such fake narratives, the opposition could not defeat PM Modi. We (NDA) got a clear majority with 292 seats. The TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar are with NDA and the Modi government will complete five years,” Athawale said.

He also congratulated Rahul Gandhi for becoming leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Athawale was here to chair a meeting to review the implementation of schemes of his ministry in Gujarat.

The social justice empowerment ministry is very important as it looks after the welfare of weaker sections of society and ensures their social and economic upliftment, Athawale said.

“In the last 10 years we have taken 25 crore people out of poverty. In the next five years, we will try to bring out the rest. The upcoming Union budget will ensure growth of every section of society,” he said.