Modi in northeast, attacks Sonia and Rahul

BJP leader Narendra Modi Monday launched a scathing attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying her party had failed to check inflation and food prices.

Addressing election rallies in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate also accused the Congress-led UPA government of failing to provide security to people from the northeast in Delhi.

In his first halt at Itanagar, Modi said the Congress was adept in making false promises.

He said the Congress promised five years ago, when it won the last general election, to bring down food prices and check inflation. Both, he said, had not been done.

"The Congress in 2009 promised to check price rise. Did prices go down?" Modi asked loudly, getting a roaring "no" as response from the crowd.

He then asked, equally loudly, if inflation has risen. The crowd responded with a thunderous "yes".

At his second rally at Biswanath Chariali in Assam's Sonitpur district, Modi said boys and girls from the northeast living in Delhi were not safe.

"Students from the northeast are not safe in Delhi. In Delhi, a northeastern boy was killed," he said, and wanted to know why Sonia Gandhi and her son and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi failed to speak about it when they last visited the northeastern region.

He was referring to the Jan 29 killing of Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, in the national capital.

Modi said attacks on students from the northeast pained him.

"I have expressed my apologies for the incident... I was told Sonia madam and Shehzada also came here. Did they say a single word over the incident? No, they are not bothered."

Modi also sought to link Sonia Gandhi's Italian links with the 2012 killing of two Indian fishermen off Kerala by two Italian marines who were allowed to leave India.

"Who was running the government in Delhi when the incident took place? Who allowed the marines to go back to their country? Had there been no intervention by the Supreme Court, Italy would not have sent back the marines to face trial in India."

Modi's aggression come a day after Sonia Gandhi told a rally in Assam that the Bharatiya Janata Party believed in the politics of hatred.

In his other comments, Modi said the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha election was packed with false promises.

"The Congress 'ghoshana patra' is actually a 'dhokha patra'," he said.

Both Congress and BJP leaders are focusing on the northeast now as it will kick off the first round of the staggered Lok Sabha polls beginning April 7.

Five of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam and one of the two in Tripura will see polling April 7.