Congress 'most corrupt', vote for BJP to avail schemes: Smriti Irani

Mariani/Sivasagar/Samaguri (Assam): Terming Congress as "most corrupt", Union Textiles minister Smriti Zubin Irani on Saturday said the opposition party only showed dreams of development in Assam and indulged in "politics of divide".

Addressing three back-to-back rallies in her maiden election campaign in Assam, the senior BJP leader appealed to the people of Assam to vote for the saffron party to continue to avail benefits of various central and state schemes.

Kickstarting her day-long programme at Mariani, she said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal have rolled out a number of schemes, benefiting the poor people of the state.

"...there is no one more corrupt than Congress. Only BJP is the party, which works for the benefit of the poors. The BJP government has worked tirelessly for the people in tea gardens across the state," said Irani, also the Minister of Women and Child Development.

Listing out a series of schemes launched by the central and state governments, she said the Congress government never worked for the poor people and appealed to the people to vote for the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly polls.

Without naming former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, Irani said, "There are some tall leaders of Congress from Assam and they even became the PM. But, AIIMS came to Assam only during Narendra Modi's tenure."

She was in Mariani, which is going to polls in the first phase on March 27, to campaign for BJP candidate Ramani Tanti, who will have a direct contest with the sitting three-time heavyweight Congress MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi.

Continuing her blistering attack on Congress in her second rally at Sivasagar, Irani said the opposition party only showed dreams of development, which were fulfilled by Modi after assuming power in 2014.

"For years, Congress ruled the state and showed dreams of development. However, development came only when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014," she added.

Irani said money will continue to come from the centre, but it will reach to the public from the state exchequer only if there is a peoples government by the BJP in Assam.

"One Congress leader had said that only 15 paise reach to the public against every Re 1 released by the centre. That means that leader also accepted that Congress workers and local leaders looted public money," she added.

She was referring to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assertion without naming him.

The Union Minister asserted that no one has dared to touch public money after Modi assumed power at the Centre.

Addressing her third rally of the day at Samaguri, Irani said,"The Congress for years did politics of divide. Did Modi ever ask religion and caste of the people when he gave toilets to 10 crore people and opened 40 crore Jan Dhan accounts?"

Before Modi, no one ever imagined that the leader of the country would talk about constructing toilets for the safety of poor women from the podium of Red Fort, she added.