While quitting, former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan had claimed that she used to hold up environmental clearances following directions from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and rued that the party later blamed her for delaying projects.
With just a day for the Delhi Assembly poll campaigning to end, Mr. Gandhi assailed the Bharatiya Janata Party for ‘stoking’ communal violence in Delhi.
“When the Congress was in power in Delhi, not only was there development, there was harmony, friendship; there was space for every dream in the city where people come to fulfil ambitions, but not since the BJP came to power at the Centre,” Mr. Gandhi charged.
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He attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “connections with industrialists.”
“Four to five of Mr. Modi’s friends are getting the benefit of the actual prices of vegetables and oil for which you pay high prices,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding that while he may talk about initiatives such as Make in India, he preferred a suit that cost “Rs.10 lakh, which was made in the United Kingdom.”
While Congress president Sonia Gandhi has addressed just one, this was Mr. Gandhi’s second rally in poll-bound Delhi where the Congress’ influence was restricted to just eight seats in the 70-member Assembly in the last elections.
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Though the capital is increasingly polarised in terms of support for the BJP and the AAP, two of Mr. Gandhi’s road shows have generated massive turnout which the party hopes would translate into votes on February 7.