For how long will you keep blaming Congress?: Priyanka Gandhi slams BJP

NAINITAL: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday and asked the ruling government how long it would keep blaming the Congress, which has been out of power for the last decade.

Addressing a public rally at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand's Nainital, Priyanka Gandhi said, "For how long will you (the BJP) keep blaming Congress? Congress has not been in power for the last 10 years. For the last 10 years, they (the BJP) have been in government with a full majority; now that they say '400 paar', they want more majority. They say nothing has been done in 75 years."

"If nothing has happened, how have such skills developed in Uttarakhand, from where IITs, IIMs, and AIIMSs came into the country? Chandrayaan landed on the moon; if Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru hadn't built these, was it possible?" she added.

Accusing the ruling BJP government in the Centre of misusing the central agencies, the Congress said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi says that everybody is corrupt; only he is clean. He praises himself. They are so busy using ED, CBI, and IT to bring leaders to their party and topple the government that they have forgotten about employment and inflation. Then, when the electoral bonds were disclosed, the issue of taking donations and doing business came to the fore. Now you tell me who is corrupt?"

The Congress leader said that she understands the feeling of martyrdom and sacrifice as she placed the "dismembered" body of his father and former PM Rajiv Gandhi in front of her mother when she was just 19 years old.

"The biggest proof of faith in Hinduism is 'sacrifice'. I placed my father's dismembered body in front of my mother when I was 19. I understand martyrdom and sacrifice. No matter how much they abuse my family and insult my martyred father, we remain silent because they do not understand our struggle. We remain silent because we have faith and true devotion to this country in our hearts," she said.

Uttarakhand has five Lok Sabha seats and the state will go to the polls in a single phase on April 19.

The BJP is looking to sweep yet again in all five Lok Sabha seats of Uttarakhand, having won from all the parliamentary constituencies in the State in both the 2014 and 2019 general elections.