NEW DELHI / NEW YORK (TIP): Amidst intense campaigning in the middle of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party stepped up its counter-attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of crony capitalism. This comes a day after Mr. Modi alleged that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had stopped “abusing” industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani and hinted at a deal.

देश के युवाओं!

4 जून को INDIA की सरकार बनने जा रही है और हमारी गारंटी है कि 15 अगस्त तक हम 30 लाख रिक्त सरकारी पदों पर भर्ती का काम शुरू कर देंगे।

नरेंद्र मोदी के झूठे प्रचार से भटकना मत, अपने मुद्दों पर डटे रहना।

INDIA की सुनो,
नफ़रत नहीं, नौकरी चुनो। pic.twitter.com/C84xxSJvnc

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 9, 2024

In a new video, Mr. Gandhi said that Mr. Modi would resort to “drama and distraction” in the next few days since the election is slipping out of his hands. “Unemployment is the biggest issue and Narendra Modi ji had promised you [the youth] two crore jobs every year. He lied, instead announced demonetization and implemented a flawed GST but did everything for the benefit of people like Adani,” Mr. Gandhi said in his video

Earlier, Mr. Gandhi asked whether Mr. Modi was speaking from his “personal experience” about money being sent by businessmen, after the Prime Minister first levelled the allegations against the Congress leader.

In another statement, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also accused the Modi government of draining wealth from ordinary Indians to crony corporates. Loans to households have increased from ₹7 lakh crore to ₹14 lakh crore in last three years and in September 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bulletin showed India’s net financial savings at just 5.1% of the GDP, he said.

P. Chidambaram, another Congress leader, also jumped in and took to X to highlight the Congress manifesto’s promise on the economy to support the private sector and every kind of enterprise — large, medium, small, and micro.

The next four phases of the general election will be on May 13, 20, 25, and June 1. Counting is scheduled for June 4.