India will be poverty free only after Congress ouster: Rajnath

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday mocked the Congress' promise to eradicate poverty, and said India will actually be freed of poverty the day it gets rid of the Congress.

Singh said the indication after second phase of election is clear that the BJP will return to power.

Addressing election rallies at Howrah and Malda districts, Singh said since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress has been promising eradication of poverty.

"Now, Rahul Gandhi is also pledging that. The fact is the day the country becomes free of the Congress, it will also get freedom from poverty," the senior BJP leader said.

Lashing out at the TMC in Bengal, Singh alleged that democracy has ceased to exist under its rule in the state.

"Violence has been unleashed on opposition parties. Is it a sign of democracy? In Bengal, we will fight till we restore democracy," he asserted.

He alleged that the TMC has replaced democracy by "goondaraj".

Under the TMC rule, "all the three -- the mother, the motherland and the people are suffering," he said, referring to the ruling party's slogan of 'Ma, Maati and Manush'.

Maintaining that infiltrators will be thrown out, Singh said refugees will be given citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP are engaged in a bitter fight over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The saffron party has also vowed to bring in National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country and weed out infiltrators.

Referring to Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed who was ordered to leave the country after he took part in a campaign of the ruling TMC in West Bengal, Singh said people like him will not be allowed to act as per their whims and fancies.