Ahmed Patel says Modi's body language a testimony to fear from Grand Alliance

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said Monday Narendra Modi's recent remarks about the Opposition's grand alliance and his body language proved that the prime minister was "afraid" of its unity. "As you have noticed, the PM has now started talking about the 'maha gathbandhan' in his speeches. It shows that the alliance has injected some kind of fear in his mind. Even his body language proves he is now scared of Opposition unity," Patel told reporters here Monday.

Modi had on Sunday dismissed the grand alliance as an alliance of "corruption, negativity and instability", saying while those parties have "money power", the Bharatiya Janata Party has "people's power". On Saturday, leaders of 22 parties had come together for a mega rally in Kolkata and declared to fight unitedly in the upcoming general election to oust the Modi government, which had "passed its expiry date".

Addressing Congress workers here Monday, Patel said the BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha polls was imminent, as all sections of the society -- from farmers to minorities -- were "fed up" over issues like corruption, inflation and unemployment. He was here to participate in an extended executive committee meeting of the state Congress. The Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat also took a swipe at BJP chief Amit Shah over the latter's claim that the saffron party would be in power for "fifty years". "The BJP president used to once claim that the BJP will rule the country for the next 50 years. However, he is now saying his party won't come to power for the next 200 years if it loses the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It shows the level of fear and anxiety among the BJP leaders.

"They are scared of defeat because they did nothing for the country. People are finding no reason to support the BJP now," the Congress leader said. He urged the state Congress leaders to prepare for the parliamentary polls and asked party workers to focus more on urban pockets as it was already strong in the rural areas.

Patel went on to praise the BJP-RSS combine's booth-level management and asked his party workers to replicate it. "We have to make a strategy to win maximum number of seats from Gujarat (it has 26 LS constituencies). The RSS cadre have worked hard at the booth level and we have to accept this." "Until we become stronger at the grassroots and booth levels, we cannot win. We cannot compete with them (without such micro-planning).... With some extra effort, we can win on many booths in which we lost in the past with thin margins," Patel added.

(With inputs from agencies.)