Surat (Gujarat): Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Friday welcomed her BJP’s win in the Assam assembly polls as well a state bypoll and made fun of the Congress.
At a government function to dedicate an affordable housing scheme in this Gujarat city, she, speaking in Gujarati, told her audience: “You all must be happy that you have your houses now, but today we and you all are very happy because BJP has won Assam and we will be making a government there. We have snatched four seats in Didi’s region (Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal) and opened our account in Kerala.”
“When we open an account, it keeps on filling and filling.”
Taunting the Congress, she said, “Yesterday, (Congress leaders Gurudas) Kamat and Jairam (Ramesh) were in Ahmedabad to hold a press conference, and they were to travel across Gujarat for one week. To do what? To plan for their victory in Gujarat in the 2017 elections. After this (election) results, I inquired where are those two. I was told they ran away.”
Amid applause and laughter, she went on: “They will now spend a week sitting with (party chief) Soniaji (Gandhi) and (party vice president) Rahul (Gandhi) thinking what to do next.”
Patel said it was thanks to the hard work of BJP workers “under the able guidance” of state BJP president Vijaybhai Rupani and party MP Mansukhbhai Mandavia that they could snatch the Talala seat in Saurashtra from the Congress after 14 years.
Continuing to mock the Congress, she said just because it did well in the panchayat elections, it thought it could win the state.
“And they want to win Gujarat in 2017 in this scenario. You have to work hard like us for good results,” she said.
—IANS