Rahul mocks Modi, says women fully safe in Bengaluru

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that women in Bengaluru were absolutely safe and that they could move about freely without any fear.

Rahul said this while mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' slogan. "They talk about ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ when a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh rapes a woman," he said during a corner meeting at Russell Market in Shivajinagar here.

Rahul's claim that women were safe in Bengaluru comes even as state BJP leaders have mounted an attack on the ruling Congress over increasing crimes against women.

Going all out to woo urban voters of Bengaluru, Rahul ended his campaign with an ambitious promise that the party, it voted to power, would transform the city and make it better than California’s Silicon Valley. "The Congress will win this election. And I want to tell you in the next five years, Congress will take this city beyond California’s Silicon Valley,” he said at Hebbal. “In 2019, the Congress will come to power in Delhi and we’ll work to make Bengaluru among the world’s best cities.”

The Congress chief hailed Bengaluru founder Kempegowda. "If Americans today say that Bengaluru is the only Indian city that can give them a fight, it is because of the foundation that Kempegowda laid."

The previous UPA regime at the Centre had given Bengaluru funds to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore, Rahul said. “This was not a gift. It was your right. But it hurts that the BJP has given Bengaluru just a fraction of this, about Rs 550 crore,” he said. Rahul listed out failures of the BJP toward Bengaluru’s development: Removing HAL from the Rafale contract, delay in according Smart City tag and release of just Rs 1 crore for the suburban rail project.

Rahul said the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa was “Karnataka’s most corrupt chief minister” and slammed the saffron party for “bringing Reddy brothers back from jail and trying to put them into Vidhana Soudha.”

Hailing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is the party’s CM face, Rahul said: “The Congress’ chief minister is the common man’s chief minister. The BJP’s chief minister is the corrupt man’s chief minister.”