Rahul attacks 'chowkidar' Modi over ties with Adani

Stepping up attack on Narendra Modi over his alleged links to Adani Group, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday questioned how the business house grew from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore during Modi's tenure in Gujarat.

Without taking Modi's name, Gandhi said he (Modi) used to appeal to the people to make him "chowkidar" of the country but in the same person's regime in Gujarat Adani's company has been made to grow from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore.

"We used to run MNREGA scheme with the amount, which this 'chowkidar' has given to one company," he said at an election rally in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh.

Gandhi said that this election was a fight between two ideologies -- one of the Congress and the other of opposition parties.

"This is a fight between two ideologies... One is of the Congress, which wants everyone to progress irrespective of their caste and creed. And the other is of opposition, which is of creating a divide between Hindus and Muslims. They don't want poor and Muslims to progress," he said.

Alleging that the amount sanctioned by the central government for Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand region did not reach Lalitpur, Gandhi said, "The Centre had sanctioned Rs 7,700 crore for this region but the amount vanished from Lucknow..."

Gandhi said that during the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party regimes people did not get employment, and added that Congress was making industrial corridor passing through Bundelkhand. "This will give employment to lakhs of youths...," he said.

He also alleged that in Bundelkhand over two thousand people had committed suicide due to "hunger and thirst", but the state government did nothing for them.

Slamming the BJP over "snoopgate", Gandhi said that the leaders of this party used to "spy on women".

Image: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi