Priyanka campaigns for Rahul in Rae Bareli, slams PM for Adani-Ambani jibe

RAE BARELI: Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his Adani-Ambani jibe, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday charged that the BJP has a nexus with industrialists and waived their loans worth Rs 16 lakh crore.

She also alleged that the entire BJP machinery is engaged in spreading "lies" about Rahul Gandhi.

Referring to the prime minister's remarks at a rally in Telangana that the Congress should explain to people why it has stopped raising the 'Ambani-Adani' issue as its 'Shehzada' used to do for the past five years, Priyanka Gandhi said, "Today he (Modi) is saying Rahul does not take the name of Adani, Ambani....He does so every day. He brings their truth in front of you every day".

"We say every day that they (BJP) have a nexus with industrialists. You must understand that Prime Minister Modi has waived off Rs 16 lakh crore of big billionaires. Whose money is this? This is not Modi ji's money. That is the country's money," she said at public meetings here while campaigning for her brother Rahul Gandhi from the family bastion.

"BJP leaders are not even talking about inflation and unemployment. They will come here and in their speeches talk about religion, caste, temples and mosques but will not talk about your real problems," she said.

The Modi government is also not paying adequate attention to farmers' problems and employment and by giving 5 kg of foodgrains to the poor, they wish to make people dependent, she alleged.

Flaying the government on the issue of unemployment, she said, "There are 30 lakh posts lying vacant at the Centre under the BJP government. The BJP does not bring schemes to remove unemployment but instead brings schemes that break your expectations."

Speaking about her family's association with the people of Rae Bareli, she said Gandhi parivar has had personal bond with Rae Bareli since the days of Indira Gandhi. "In electing Rahul Gandhi, Rae Bareli will get two 'saansads'- her brother and she herself, who will always stand to solve people's problems," she said.

Priyanka Gandhi asserted that the people of Rae Bareli understand leaders well.

"When they did not like some policy of Indiraji (Indira Gandhi) they defeated her also. Indira did not get angry but did introspection. You elected her again. It is a speciality of the people of Rae Bareli that they understand leaders," she said while addressing a street meeting at Thulwasa in the constituency.

She also charged the BJP wanted to change the Constitution but when it realised they would have to suffer losses in the election, the prime minister said they had no such plans.

Speaking about her brother, she said, "You must know how much Rahul ji has struggled. He is such a person in our country about whom the entire BJP machinery has spread falsehoods and lies in every possible way. How many attacks were made against him? He was expelled from Parliament...he was thrown out of his house but Rahul ji did not back down. It is his character that when he sees injustice happening, he fights for justice and does not step back".

"That is why Rahul covered four thousand kilometres from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and then travelled from Manipur to Mumbai. These were journeys to understand your problems. These were trips that told the country that the direction of politics in the country was going wrong. We have to fix that," the Congress general secretary said.

Priyanka Gandhi also talked about scrapping the Agniveer scheme for recruitment in the armed forces and restoring the earlier permanent recruitment programme and filling 30 lakh vacant posts in the central government ministries.

Earlier in a post on X, she said her party's 100-year-old relationship with the people of Rae Bareli has entered a new era and the people of the constituency are once again ready for its leadership.

The BJP has fielded its UP minister Dinesh Pratap Singh from the seat, which will see voting in the fifth phase on May 20.

Rahul Gandhi had filed nomination from Rae Bareli constituency on Friday last.