New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi yesterday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming to fight corruption but aligning with a "corrupt" Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab.
The Congress leader also set to rest the speculations on the party's chief ministerial candidate ahead of the February 4 assembly elections by announcing that party state unit chief Captain Amarinder Singh will again head the government if the Congress is returned to power.
"Modi talks of corruption and religion at various places. But how can he stand with the corrupt Akali Dal leaders and talk of fighting corruption?" Gandhi said while addressing an election rally here in the Akali stronghold, which is represented in the assembly by Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
Gandhi made a strong attack on Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
With little over a week to go before poll day in Punjab, the political battle escalated in the state yesterday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi engaging in a high decibel war of words.
Modi led the election campaign of the Akali-BJP coalition and addressed a rally in Jalandhar, while Gandhi on the first day of his three-day Punjab visit launched an offensive against the ruling combine at a rally at Majitha.
Modi dismissed the Congress as a "sinking ship" and "history" and called upon the people not to vote for the opposition party in the coming assembly elections.
"The Congress… is on its last breath," Modi said at a joint election rally with Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron Parkash Singh Badal here.
"The Congress has no principles or rules," Modi said, adding it is struggling to even survive.
