Guj CM hits back at Gandhi for 'woke up' remarks

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Wednesday hit back at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that his party had managed to "wake up" chief ministers of Assam and Gujarat who have waived farm loans and unpaid rural power bills, respectively, in their states.

Rupani dubbed Gandhi's tweet as an "over-enthusiasm" due to the Opposition party's recent victory in the assembly elections held in three states.

"The Congress party has managed to wake the CMs of Assam & Gujarat from their deep slumber. PM is still asleep. We will wake him up too," Gandhi had twitted.

On Tuesday, the BJP government in Assam announced the approval of Rs 600 crore farm loan waivers, which it said will benefit around eight lakh farmers of the state.

Simultaneously, the party's government in Gujarat announced a complete waiver of Rs 625 crore in unpaid electricity bills, under its one-time settlement scheme for over six lakh people living in rural parts of the state.

The state government made the announcement on the last day of campaigning for Jasdan assembly bypoll on December 18.

"Gujarat always took good decisions for farmers of the state under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"This is the reason that the farmers of the state gave the BJP the opportunity to serve them again in 2017 Assembly polls even after 22 years and rejected Congress for the seventh time", the chief minister tweeted.

"Congress, which faced defeat across the country, has won three states after a very long time. Rahul Gandhi's tweet shows the over-enthusiasm of this victory", he said in another tweet.

In the elections held in Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the Congress stormed to power by defeating the respective BJP governments.