Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 'I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders either out on bail, or in jail,' says J P Nadda in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: BJP president J P Nadda on Friday slammed the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc, calling its constituents 'corrupt' and said their leaders were 'either on bail or in jail.'

Nadda was addressing a rally here gathering support for party's Chandigarh candidate Sanjay Tandon.

Slamming the previous UPA government at the Centre, Nadda said, "10 years ago, a common man used to think that nothing can change in India…. India used to be called a corrupt nation. But under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country's economy jumped from 11 position to fifth position," he said.

"We have surpassed Great Britain – those Britishers who ruled us for 200 years. Make Modi PM for a third time, India will become the third largest economy in two years," he said.

Calling I.N.D.I.A. alliance, a 'ghamandiya gathbandhan,' Nadda said, "What kind of an alliance is it? It is an alliance of two things. They have nothing to do with you. All these parties are into saving their families. All these are dynastic parties.

"Modi ji says remove corruption and they say save the corrupt. All these corrupt parties," he alleged.

Hitting out at the Congress, Nadda alleged that the grand old party perpetrated the Commonwealth Games scam, AgustaWestland scam, coal scam, sugar scam, and rice scam.

"Tell me whether Akhilesh (Yadav) perpetrated the Gomti river front scam or not, laptop scam, foodgrain scam," he said.

Nadda also mentioned the fodder scam to target Lalu Prasad Yadav.

"Whether K Kavitha is involved in liquor scam or not, whether a TMC minister was involved in teacher (recruitment) scam or not all of them are 'ghotale baaz'," he said.

Nadda said that Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram, and AAP's Sanjay Singh were out on bail.

"Today (Arvind) Kejriwal came out, otherwise he was also behind bars. Manish Sisodia is in jail or not, Satyendra Jain is in jail or not. They are either in jail or on bail. All of them are corrupt," he alleged.

He slammed the opposition leaders for fighting elections on the basis of caste and religion.

"Rahul Gandhi is roaming around with a book of the Constitution. I ask him to at least read it. Babasaheb Ambedkar had said there will not be reservation on the basis of religion. It is written in the Constitution," said the BJP leader.

He alleged that they were trying to snatch the share of Dalits, OBC and tribal people by giving reservation on the basis of religion.

Nadda also slammed the Congress over its leader Sam Pitroda's remarks and said that he, an advisor of Rahul Gandhi, spoke about dividing India on the basis of colour of skin. "Should such a language be used?," he said.

Pitroda recently stoked a controversy with his remarks during a podcast when he cited ethnic and racial identities like Chinese, Africans, Arabs and Whites to describe the physical appearance of Indians from different parts of the country.