Congress a "sinking ship no power can save it: Rajnath Singh in Madhya Pradesh

KHANDWA: Congress is a "sinking ship" with a hole in the bottom, and no power in the world can stop it from sinking, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday.

He was addressing public meetings in Khandwa and Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh.

In a veiled dig at the Gandhi family, the Defence Minister said, "After independence, Mahatma Gandhi said as democracy has been established in the country, it is the time to dissolve Congress, but the leaders of Congress ignored Mahatma Gandhi's request."

"I think the people of this country have made up their mind to fulfil what Mahatma Gandhi said about Congress, and they (people) will definitely wipe out Congress from the country," he said.

He also praised the BJP government for bringing "25 crore" people out of poverty in the last 10 years.

"Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Manmohan Singh, all of them committed to ending poverty, but all of them failed. But the Modi government was able to bring 25 crore people out of poverty," he added.

On the allegations levelled by Opposition of 'Democracy under threat' amid the developments in Surat and Indore, the Defence Minister pointed out that the Congress candidate was elected unopposed 20 times in the past.

Earlier on Monday, Akshay Kanti Bam, the Congress candidate from Indore parliamentary seat withdrew his nomination.

Prior to this, Mukesh Dalal won the election "unopposed" a day after the nomination of the party's Surat Lok Sabha candidate was rejected on Sunday over alleged discrepancies in the signature of the proposers.

"The Surat Lok Sabha BJP candidate has been elected unopposed. The Congress candidate from Indore has resigned from Congress and is supporting the BJP. This is the affection of people towards the BJP. But Congress says the BJP is a threat to democracy. Congress candidates have been elected unopposed 20 times, then there was no threat to democracy?" Rajnath asserted.

Singh, during his address, compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Ahilyabai Holkar, who took the reigns of the Holkar dynasty after her husband's demise and played an important role in the protection of cultural heritage in Malwa.

"Modi ji is also doing the same what Ahilyabai Holkar had done. He ensured the construction of Ujjain Mahakaal Corridor, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, and Ram Mandir in Ayodhya," he added.

Asserting for 'One Nation One Election', he said assembly elections were held around four months back and now within a short duration, again the general elections are happening.

"I want to say there should be a single election every five years. And I assure you that next time both the elections will happen together and we will do whatever we can do for it," he added.

Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh are being conducted in four phases. The first two phases concluded on April 19 and April 26. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, making it the sixth-largest state in terms of parliamentary representation.

In 2019, BJP won 28 out of 29 seats while Congress could only win one seat.