PM leads poll campaign even as BJP leaders target 'first family'
The campaigning has only picked up in last few days and Prime Minister on Friday directed his ire against the 'first family' in Congress when he referred to the Enforcement Directorate's charge sheet on the AgustaWestland helicopter scam.
By : migrator
Update: 2019-04-06 04:27 GMT
New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will campaign for party candidates in Odisha on Saturday and address two election rallies in Sundergarh and Sonepur.
According to BJP sources, party's national president Amit Shah would attend the BJP's Vijay Sankalp Samabesh at Polsara and Bargarh on Sunday.
The campaigning has only picked up in last few days and Prime Minister on Friday directed his ire against the 'first family' in Congress when he referred to the Enforcement Directorate's charge sheet on the AgustaWestland helicopter scam.
On Saturday, Prime Minister will also address rallies at Balod in Chhattisgarh and Nanded in Maharashtra.
BJP chief Mr Shah is likely to campaign in the eastern state on Tuesday, April 9 as well when he will take out a roadshow from Singha Dwara of Shree Jagannath Temple to Badasankha in Puri.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also scheduled to address a public meeting at Berhampur on Saturday.
Elections to the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147-member Odisha Assembly would be held in four phases starting from April 11.
Mr Modi has alleged on Friday that middleman Christian Michel had pointed at the involvement of the first family of the Congress.
The Congress and corruption were like "inseparable partners", Prime Minister Modi said and referred two names being mentioned by Michel to his interrogators.
"One was 'AP' and the other was 'Fam'. 'AP' stands for Ahmed Patel and 'Fam' stands for family. Have you heard of Ahmed Patel? Which family is he close to?" Prime Minister said at a rally in Dehradun.
The ED had filed a supplementary charge sheet against Michel in a Delhi court on Thursday, saying that the alleged middleman had identified the initials "AP" as Ahmed Patel, the senior Congress leader considered close to the Gandhi family.
Michel, however, filed an application on Friday claiming that he had not named anybody in connection with the deal.
In Amethi, BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday sought to corner Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the AgustaWestland VVIP choppers case.
"Rahul Gandhi's name has come up in the AgustaWestland case. Besides, his relations with some others involved in the scams related to 2G spectrum are also in the open," she said.
The Congress has meanwhile termed the Enforcement Directorate's supplementary charge sheet a "cheap election stunt" to divert the people's attention from the "imminent defeat" of the Narendra Modi dispensation in the Lok Sabha election.
Christian Michel has filed an application on Friday claiming that he had not named anybody in connection with the helicopter deal.
The ED had filed a supplementary charge sheet against Michel in a Delhi court on Thursday, saying that the alleged middleman had identified the initials "AP" as Ahmed Patel.
Finance Minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Friday questioned Congress party's and Rahul Gandhi's "silence" on the Enforcement Directorate charge sheet in the VVIP choppers case.
"Right to silence is for accused, not for the one who is dreaming to be the country's Prime Minister," Mr Jaitley tweeted.
''Congress cannot remain silent on these matters as CBI case was registered in 2013 (during UPA regime),'' Mr Jaitley told reporters here. He said presumably the Congress does not want to react to the matter as the new revelation will lead to the big leaders in the party, including 'AP', 'RG' etc.
''Are these names fictitious,'' he said and cautioned that any effort to conceal the truth can only boomerang.
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