Poll-bound Uttar Pradesh witnessed high voltage war of words between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, a day after the Congress vice president levelled sensational corruption charges against the prime minister.
Hours after Modi tore apart Rahul's claims at a public meeting in Varanasi, the Congress leader stepped up his attack asking the prime minister to answer the questions he had raised.
"You (Modi) can mock me as much as you want, but please answer the questions of the people of this country," he said.
Rahul, in a speech almost similar to that he made in Gujarat on Wednesday, repeated his allegations that the prime minister had received kickbacks from corporate houses including Sahara and Birla. He, however, didn't produce any fresh evidence to buttress his claims.
Addressing a rally in Gujarat on Wednesday, the Congress leader had said that Modi had received around Rs 45 crore as kickbacks from the Sahara group when he was the Gujarat chief minister.
On Thursday, Rahul attacked the Union government over a range of issues including demonetisation and farmers' problems.
Raking up the currency crisis, Rahul said those who were standing in queues outside the banks and ATMs were not thieves or the rich, but the poor, honest people of the country.
Labourers in the country did not purchase goods through debit or credit cards; they bought it with cash, he said, taking a dig at the government's calls for digital transactions.
He lambasted the prime minister's claims about the crackdown on black money and asked how many black money holders had been arrested by this government. “Not even one; he instead made Lalit Modi and vijay Mallya run away,” he said.
