"What to call a person who left battle in between...": Rajnath Singh takes jibe at Rahul Gandhi

Rohtak (Haryana) [India], May 3 : Defence Minsiter Rajnath Singh on Friday took a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for having chosen Rae Bareli instead of Amethi to contest in the Lok Sabha polls and said that everyone knows what do "we call a person who runs away from the battle in between".
He was addressing a public meeting in Rohtak, Haryana for BJP candidate Arvind Sharma.
"Rahul Gandhi has left the battleground and ran away to Wayanad. When his party wanted him to contest elections again from Amethi, he chose Rae Bareli. We all know, what to call a person who left battle in between," he said.
The Defence Minister also praised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for the work done for the farmers. He said the price of urea is cheaper in India as compared to neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and even the US.
Singh also attacked Rahul Gandhi over the former Pakistan Minister's recent 'Rahul on fire' post.
"Fawad Chaudhry, a former Pakistani Minister in their parliament claimed Pakistan's involvement in the Pulwama attack, and the same Fawad has now extended support to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and called Rahul on Fire," he said.
"This has happened because of the Modi-led government at the Centre," he said.
On the allegations levelled by the Opposition that 'Democracy is under threat' amid the political developments in Surat and Indore, the Defence Minister pointed out that the Congress candidate was elected unopposed 20 times in the past.
"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?" he asserted.
Rahul Gandhi will be contesting elections from Rae Bareli, the seat vacated recently by his mother and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi when she moved to Rajya Sabha.
Rahul is pitted against Congress defector and three-time MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh in Rae Bareli. A sitting MP from Kerala's Wayanad, Rahul is also seeking a fresh term in the Lower House from the seat that polled in Phase 2 of the general elections on April 26.
Earlier, Union Minister Smriti Irani said that Congress had conceded defeat from the constituency even before a vote was cast, adding that the opposition party should not have fielded a "proxy candidate" (Kishori Lal Sharma) if they were hopeful about the outcome of the polls.
"I welcome the guests to Amethi. The fact that the Gandhis are not fighting in Amethi shows that even before a vote has been cast, they are losing from Amethi. If they had seen even a glimmer of hope, they would have contested and not put up a proxy candidate," Smriti Irani told reporters in Amethi.
In Amethi, the Congress will be represented by Kishori Lal Sharma, a longtime loyalist of the Gandhi family. Kishori Lal Sharma filed his nomination from the Amethi seat today.
The voting in both seats will be held in the fifth phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on May 7. Polling for 25 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on May 7, with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4.