Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday projected Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
“There’s been an anti-incumbency wave against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last eight months. The stage will be set for Rahul Gandhi to become prime minister in 2019,” Moily told a press conference here. This is the second time this month that Moily projected Rahul as the party’s PM candidate.
Rahul himself reportedly told an audience at the University of California, Berkeley last month that he was “absolutely ready” for the top job.
Moily went on to slam the BJP-led NDA government for its “inexperience and misgovernance” of the economy, holding demonetisation and GST as examples.
“The economy of the world and Karnataka (where Congress is ruling) is looking up, but that of India is going down,” Moily charged. “The slower pace of GDP growth means India has lost the reputation as the world’s fastest-growing economy to China.”
Giving full marks to the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, Moily said Karnataka had outperformed the national average specifically in the areas of attracting industrial investments and creation of jobs.
“Karnataka has retained the top spot in attracting investments, with Gujarat and Maharashtra coming next. Over 14 lakh jobs have been created in Karnataka in the last four years, whereas job creation at the national level is in the negative bracket,” Moily said.
