Claiming that India and BJP have become synonymous, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Shekhawat on Tuesday said it was the Congress that divided Gujarat on caste basis. At an election rally in Pethapur in Gandhinagar, Shekhawat, Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, said, “There was a time when our Gujarat, especially Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar were known as city of riots.” Recalling how 200-250 days curfew was imposed in Ahmedabad city in a year, he said, “This is the same area of Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad, where a gangster sitting in jail used to win elections.” He was referring to Ahmedabad-based gangster Abdul Latif who was shot in a police encounter in 1997. The minister also held public meetings in Vav (a Congress seat), Kankrej (the party's constituency) in Banaskantha district, and Asarwa, a SC reserved constituency in Ahmedabad district and the current seat of the party’s MLA Pradip Parmar, Gujarat’s Cabinet Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. The party has fielded Darshna Vaghela from the seat this time. Attacking Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, the Union minister said, “On one side are the people who divided the country and are now pretending to unite the country (referring to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra). On the other hand there are people who made promises, kept them and worked for the development of the state and the country.” On the Aam Aadmi Party, Shekhawat said, “Someone new from Delhi has come here. King of lies. The people of Punjab were innocent, now they are gradually realising. Will you get tricked?” Gandhinagar North, is held by Congress MLA CJ Chavda, who won the assembly elections in 2017. The BJP has fielded Rita Patel from the seat.
