Rebel Bharatiya Janata Party leader Keshubhai Patel on Thursday appealed to voters from a Congress stage to elect into power a pro-farmer government in Gandhinagar in the assembly elections slated to be held in December.
"Lanka prospered but Ravan had to be killed because he used to do injustice to people. Now the time has come to punish those who did injustice to farmers," Patel said, without naming Modi at a farmers meet organised by Dhoraji Congress MLA Vitthal Radadia.
"The time has come to bring a pro-farmer government in the state," Patel said, addressing a farmers meeting late on Wednesday night at Dhoraji to mark Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's 132nd birth anniversary.
Patel came down heavily on the "dictatorial" style of functioning of Modi. "He wants to terrorise the society for his personal gain. Even MLAs of the state are not allowed to speak under his dictatorial ways," Patel said.
Anti-Modi remarks of Patel, sharing dais with Congress leaders just 40 days ahead of the first phase of elections in Gujarat assumes significance as the BJP leadership has tried to portray that the veteran leader was with it.
"The democratic framework of the state is ruined as this man has not allowed MLAs to raise issues concerning people in the assembly," Patel said.
"The time has come to make people of the state free from one man show and dictatorship," he added.
Describing progress of the state as prosperity without freedom, Patel said, "The people want both. Prosperity without freedom is useless."
"This man has misused crores of rupees belonging to the people for self-publicity," Patel alleged.
"He has done injustice by diverting power meant for farming sector to industry," Patel told the gathering amidst applause.
Remembering principle of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, he said "Sardar had kept the nation intact but this man who takes pride in calling himself 'Chhote Sardar' has divided people on the lines of caste for his self-gain."
Besides Keshubhai Patel, his loyalists like Gordhan Zadafia and Vallabh Kathiriya and Congress leader and MLA of Dhoraji Vitthal Radadiya also criticised Narendra Modi.