Advani out, Adani in: says Rahul

Raising the pitch against Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi today attacked him over his alleged links with the Adani group, saying the Gujarat businessman was given "everything" while senior BJP leaders like L K Advani and Jaswant Singh were "thrown out".

"Advani was thrown out-- Jaswant Singh was thrown out (from the party) and Adani was taken in", he said addressing a rally here in support of party candidate and Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Rahul also raked up the issue of Modi's marriage to hit out at BJP, saying while the party made claims of ensuring safety of women, it took several elections for its Prime Ministerial candidate to mention the name of his wife in the poll affidavit.

"Don't know how many elections he has contested till now, but he has revealed for the first time that he is married. In Delhi, he talks about honour of women, but his own wife's name doesn't reach the affidavit," he said.

Modi has for the first time declared himself as a married man by revealing his wife's name as Jashodaben in an affidavit filed before the Election Commission along with his nomination papers for Vadodara Lok Sabha seat.

Taking a dig at Modi's claim of governance, Gandhi said it was "Adani government" being run there. "He is Gujarat's big businessman. How was he given everything. They (Modi Government) work like this," Rahul said.

"They talk of development...will undertake development... In Gujarat, one person was given hundreds of acres of land free and asked to do whatever he wants to do with it, but at the same time, workers and farmers were weeping," he said, without naming the person who was granted huge chunk of land.

This is the second time in as many days that Rahul has attacked Modi on his alleged links with the Adani group.

Addressing a meeting in Udaipur yesterday, Rahul had said, "BJP has chucked out Advani and brought in Adani in its race to make one person the Prime Minister of India".

Targeting Modi over the issue of alleged spying of a woman in Gujarat, Rahul said, "The Chief Minister's office and the police set up was engaged in tapping of the phone of a woman--the entire Gujarat Police was stalking her...The Chief Minister wanted to know what was happening around her".

"If these examples are anything to reveal the true face of BJP, then what about the claim of BJP about women empowerment across the country?" he asked.

Rahul said BJP ministers in Karnataka watched videos while in the state assembly. "What kind of videos, you would have read in the newspapers," he said, apparently referring to an episode during BJP's tenure in Karnataka when ministers were caught on camera allegedly watching porn clips in the state assembly.

Rahul also claimed that during a visit to Chhattisgarh he was told that 20,000 women were missing. "They don't know where they went, they are missing," he said.

Raman Singh-led BJP government is in power in Chhattisgarh.

Flanked by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and state Congress Chief Saif-ud-Din Soz, Rahul said, "It is a battle between two ideologies as we go to elections. On one side it is National Conference and Congress and on the other it is BJP".

He said the country can taken towards peace, progress and prosperity only through unity, but the BJP is engaged in "divisive politics".