Rahul will finish Congress: Ashwini Choubey

Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey today called Congress president Rahul Gandhi an "impersonator" adorning several faces and claimed that he will "finish" the party.

"Rahul Gandhi is an impersonator (bahrupiya) and wants to adorn severals faces but he is a child (bauwa). He will finish the party. It will be Congress president who will put his party into the graves," he told reporters at the state guest house here.

Asked to comment on Congress president Rahul Gandhi's reported remark that Congress is a party of Muslims, the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare said that this shows the party's mentality which has been explained by its president.

"Rahul Gandhi does not know about democracy. He is indulging in votebank (politics)...This is a conspiracy to create communal tension in order to consolidate votebank," the BJP leader said.

On Shashsi Tharoor's "Hindu Pakistan" remark, he asked Congress to explain to the people as what was their intention behind making such statement.

Choubey claimed that BJP would win maximum out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal given the kind of atmosphere which has been prevailing in the state because of the "atrocious rule".

"Like the Left government, Mamata government will also be wiped out from the state in the next assembly elections", Choubey, who toured the state recently, claimed.

The Union Minister said he favoured the implementation of both "Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)" and "Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayta Yojana" in Bihar to help the farmers in large numbers.

Choubey said that he has formed his opinion on the basis of his talks with the farmers who wanted both schemes to be run in the state.

The PMFBY has been replaced with the new scheme by the state government's "Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayta Yojana" which will be implemented from the Kharif season 2018.

"I had visited the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Buxar yesterday where I met several farmers who were of the opinion that farmers would benefit the most, had both Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayta Yojana should be implemented in the state," Choubey said.

Asserting that PMFBY has benefited 12.5 lakh farmers in the last season, the minister refuted the allegations that PMFBY has benefited the insurance companies and not the farmers.

"The scheme (PMFBY) has been introduced by the PM keeping in mind the interest of farmers especially poor farmers. There is no question of insurance companies getting benefited with the scheme," he said adding that some of the insurance companies have been black listed for their wrong doings.

On Jun 5 (2018), the Bihar Cabinet had given its nod to "Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayta Yojana" to provide financial assistance to farmers for their crop damage.