'Boxer' Modi punches party leaders, says Rahul

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by portraying him as a "boxer" who punched his party leaders like L.K. Advani and flattened the common man's policies.

He slammed the Modi government's policies ranging from economy to those dealing with small businessmen and farmers.

Speaking at an election rally in Haryana's Bhiwani, Gandhi said: "In the last election, India put a new boxer, Narendra Modi, in the ring. The 56-inch chest came to the ring. Facing him was a boxer - poverty, problems of farmers and corruption.

"The crowd was the people of this country. Also present were Narendra Modiji's coach L.K. Advaniji and their entire team including (Nitin) Gadkariji. Then the country said, okay, this boxer will fight poverty, solve farmers' issues end corruption and fight to put Rs 15 lakh into people's accounts," Gandhi said, getting a loud applause from the gathering.

"The first thing he does is he looks at the coach and punches Advaniji on the face. Advaniji is shocked. Then he runs after his team. One by one, he punches Gadkariji, Arun Jaitleyji, dhar, dhar, dhar.

"People are watching. Then he jumps down from the ring. People ask why he's running away from the ring, where he was supposed to fight the issues.

"But he goes into the middle of the crowd and punches small shopkeepers twice - 'notebandi' (demonetisation) and Gabbar Singh Tax (Goods and Service Tax). Then he runs after farmers, who tell him, 'boxer saab, please go inside the ring and waive our loans', but dhar, dhar he also hits the farmers. 

"What's happening? Doesn't this boxer understand he has to fight inside the ring?" asked Gandhi.

BJP's Bhiwani-Mahendragarh candidate Dharambir Singh is pitted against former Congress MP Shruti Choudhry, the granddaughter of former state Chief Minister Bansi Lal and daughter of Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry.

In 2014, Shruti Choudhry had finished third, losing out to Dharambir Singh by a margin of 1.3 lakh votes and Rao Bahadur Singh of the Indian National Lok Dal by 7,000 votes.

There are 10 parliamentary seats in the state, where polling will be held on May 12 in the sixth phase. IANS