Congress has no funds to give: Tharoor on Puri candidate’s withdrawal from race

Amid the Lok Sabha campaign, PM Modi has been leading the BJP’s attack, saying that the Congress — if elected to power — will give the country’s wealth to “infiltrators”. The Opposition, in retaliation, has termed such statements as “polarising”.

On Saturday, Tharoor further insisted at the presser, “The word Muslim or Muslim reservation… all this is not even mentioned in our manifesto. He says we are going to snatch away houses and buffaloes of people and give it away to someone else. He says we are going to take away the mangalsutras of women and give them to Muslims. What kind of discourse is this? This is the same Mr. Modi, who says, we (Congress) have ruled for 65 years. Is there any record in the last 65 years to show we have done this? Has the Congress taken away anyone’s home, goats or mangalsutras. This is nonsense. He should campaign for real issues. There are state reservations and central reservations. In some states, the state has included Muslims under OBC quota. It is not a national policy declared by Congress…” Tharoor further said.

Calling the cancellation of the nomination Surat Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani as a “shameful” incident, Tharoor said that Puri Congress candidate Suchitra Mohanty withdrawing from the race at “this stage” was “strange”. “What happened in Surat was shameful. It is not a good thing that our candidate did not want to contest. Whether it is a problem of the party or the individual, you will have to ask them but the candidate should tell why he did not want to contest… Why did he not protest if his form was rejected due to an error. We are going to discuss this issue and there will be an investigation…,” said the Congress veteran.

He further added, “What happened in Puri is different. Our candidate has said that she has not been given party funds… Regarding money, I know as I was a candidate too… the party is finding it difficult to give money to candidates for the campaign. The government has frozen our accounts with Rs 149 crore. It is not a trivial matter. At this stage, I do not know why she has pulled out but it is true that the Congress party does not have funds to give candidates.”

Tharoor said that the Congress was confident that it would not end with a zero in the remaining 25 seats in Gujarat. “We are campaigning to change the government in Delhi. We need to do this because today we are in the situation where the very idea of India and the Indian democracy that our forefathers fought for is in peril… We believe we are not going to end up with zero in Gujarat… The voters of Gujarat will teach them a small lesson that they should not take the voters for granted.

Ten years ago, when Modi was the chief minister, he said Vadodara has not developed; now when he is the PM, the new CM is saying Vadodara has not developed.,” he asserted.

Tharoor also said that the Congress will do away with the Agniveer scheme introduced by the Modi government.