Back in Kolar district, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by raking up the Adani "corruption" issue again. It was here in 2019 that he made a remark on the Modi surname for which he was convicted of criminal defamation and stripped of his Parliament membership.
In his first visit to Karnataka after the Assembly polls were announced on March 29, Gandhi emphasised that "Adani is a symbol of corruption," while addressing the 'Jai Bharat' rally.
Expressing confidence that the Congress would come to power in Karnataka, where Assembly elections are set to take place on May 10, Gandhi said the first Cabinet meeting after the party formed the government would approve its key poll promises, paving the way for their implementation. "I am very glad the Congress party is fighting Karnataka Assembly elections unitedly," he said.
Reiterating that he was not allowed to speak in parliament, Gandhi said, "I wrote two letters to the Speaker that I want to respond to the allegations against me, but I was not given a chance. He laughed and said I can’t do anything. He said to drink tea with him and he’ll explain. I said you are the speaker of the parliament, whatever you want to do in the parliament you can do, why are you not doing your work? He is scared to put the Adani issue in the parliament."
Senior Congress leaders including AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, KPCC chief DK Shivakumar, and legislature party leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah were among those who addressed the public meeting.
Rahul Gandhi was on March 23 sentenced to two years in jail by a court in Gujarat's Surat in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his "why all thieves have the Modi surname" remark. A day later, he was disqualified from the Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction in the case. He had made those remarks at Kolar in April 2019 during the Lok Sabha poll campaign.
(With inputs from PTI)
