K'taka polls: Rahul hits back at Sushma

Alleges that the saffron party leader does not talk about corruption in Karnataka

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit back at BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who had attacked his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, saying the saffron party leader does not talk about corruption in Karnataka.

"Yesterday the BJP leader (Swaraj) stood up in Parliament and talked about corruption. But she will not speak about Karnataka. She will not speak about her friends (an apparent reference to Bellary's Reddy brothers). BJP people are not able to see corruption in Karnataka," he said addressing an election meeting here. Rahul's attack on Swaraj comes a day after the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha lashed out at the UPA government in the House and later accused Sonia Gandhi of "instigating" her party members to create disturbance during her speech. She had also levelled a charge that Sonia Gandhi did not have any commitment to Indian parliamentary traditions.

Taking on BJP, Rahul said the party would not say a Chief Minister went to jail. "They will not say Reddy brothers who they sold the entire state to... They talk about corruption," Rahul Gandhi added.

For the first time in history, a Chief Minister had gone to jail, said Gandhi, apparently referring to B S Yeddyurappa, who is facing corruption charges and had to quit as Chief Minister on graft charge after his indictment by Lok Ayukta in its report on illegal mining. "And your future has been mortgaged to mafia," he said. Gandhi accused the BJP government of having "mortgaged" people's future to "mafia" and "sold" the state to mining barons Reddy brothers.

The party "built" the Reddy brothers - to come to power in the state. The BJP leaders "who have built" the Reddy brothers - G Janardhana and G Karunakara - "who have taken their money" and "who are responsible for corruption" in Karnataka go to the rest of the country and talk about corruption, he said.

Gandhi said there was a time when Karnataka used to shine and be talked about as a progressive and leading state but "the sad part is that in the last nine years, (when Congress was out of power), Karnataka's shine has disappeared.