PM Modi gave defence contract to a man who has never built a single aircraft: Rahul Gandhi

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks of nationalism, but gave the world's biggest defence contract to a man who has never built a single aircraft, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said here on Tuesday.

Addressing an election rally here, Gandhi said: "Prime Minister Modi gave Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani in Rafale deal. This amount is equivalent to the total budget allotted to National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for one year. But, in this case, only one man received the entire amount. This is unfair."

Stepping up the campaign for his party in the state, he reiterated his promise of giving Rs 72,000 per annum to five crore families in the country under the NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) scheme. "In a bid to empower women, our party will deposit the entire amount into the bank accounts of the women of the household," he added.

The Congress chief also asserted that if voted to power, he will launch a "surgical strike" on poverty. "I will do NYAY (justice) to the poor people not by snatching the money from the pockets of the middle class, but by recovering money from Ambanis, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya," Gandhi said.

Among his other promises was a promise of rolling out two budgets--National Budget and Farmer Budget, if his party is elected to power in the the general elections.

"We will announce everything starting from Minimum Support Price (MSP), loan waiver and crop insurance for the farmers in the first few months of coming to power," Gandhi said.

In tune with the party promise in the election manifesto, he said, "No youngster will have to take the permission from ten government organisations to start a business. If our party is voted to power, entrepreneurs would be able to register their business even after three years."

Kerala, which has 20 Lok Sabha seats, will go to polls in a single phase on April 23.

Congress is contesting on 16 out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala leaving four seats for its allies - two for Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and one each for Kerala Congress (Mani) and Socialist Party (RSP).