No vacancy till 2047: BJP's Keshav Prasad Maurya's message to Rahul Gandhi

Pooh-poohing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's attempt at grabbing power, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Monday said he must realise there is ''no vacancy'' for the top post at least until 2047.

The senior BJP leader also took a swipe at Congress for delay in announcing candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli, saying the party is so scared that it has not been able to name candidates for what they always considered their ''ancestral seats'' and that this shows they do not have confidence even in the Gandhi family.

In an exclusive interview to PTI, Maurya said people are not ready to give their mandate to the Congress as they have seen how the grand old party destroyed the country with corruption when it was in power.

''Till 2047, there is no vacancy,'' Maurya said, when asked whether Rahul Gandhi should start preparing for the 2029 Lok Sabha polls. Gandhi's desperation to become the prime minister was evident from him repeatedly raising the caste bogey but he was least concerned about OBCs, SCs or STs, Maurya said. ''He is desperate to grab the prime minister's chair, but he is not going to succeed in whatever he does. All his issues are hollow and his OBC bogey has already got punctured,'' the BJP leader said.

He said the country has now entered into 'shatabdi kaal' after completion of 'Amrit Kaal' and during this period, ''people are not ready to leave the country in the hands of the Congress. It's because people relied on the Congress for 60 years and saw what happened during its rule''. ''If anyone destroyed the country and put it into the swamp of corruption, it's the Congress. That's why I say the Congress is the mother of corruption,'' Maurya charged. ''No matter how much he tries, nobody can stop lotus (the BJP's poll symbol) from blooming because we are working so hard.'' he said.

''It is true that the Congress is scared at the moment. They do not seem to have any trust in either the Gandhi family, or Rahul Gandhi, or Priyanka Vadra who gives big speeches like -- Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon.'' ''All parties announce the names of big leaders in their first list,'' he said. "They used to call Amethi and Rae Bareli their ancestral seats, but they have not been able to announce their candidates yet.'' ''When we say that we will win all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, it is not our arrogance or over-confidence, but it is based on the work that we have done on the ground and the ever-rising popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,'' he said. Elections are beginning April 19 and the 80 seats of Uttar Pradesh are spread over the all seven phases of voting, ending on June 1. Counting of votes will take place on June 4. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP alone had won 62 seats in the state, while it had got 71 in 2014 polls. Its allies also won some seats both the times.

Rahul Gandhi had won from Amethi in 2014, but lost to the BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019. His mother Sonia Gandhi won from Rae Bareli in 2014 as well as in 2019, but she has already announced that she won't contest this time, fuelling speculation that her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra can be fielded from either of the two seats.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)