Rajnandgaon/Bahraich: Separated by a distance of more than 912 kilometres, prime ministerial aspirants for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections - Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi on Friday indulged in loud rhetoric to attack each other's parties - the former described BJP as "world champion in corruption", and the latter alleging that the Congress is "using CBI and Indian Mujahideen" to hound out political rivals.
The tenor of debate was shrill, to put it lightly. Rahul Gandhi's body language throughout his speech was that of a man in anger, Modi was his usual self - using the name Indian Mujahideen several times during his speech.
"Those who failed to defeat Modi in three elections in Gujarat, those who feel they can't stop Modi or BJP in a democratic manner, have adopted other methods.
" Misusing CBI, allowing Indian Mujahideen a free hand, they are doing bum, bandook and rajneeti (bombs, guns and politics), let them hear clearly, I am born of another mettle. I am never going to bow down to terrorism. I will uproot terrorism", said the Gujarat chief minister.
"I feel in the next elections, SP, BSP and Congress - this trio will not come into the field of elections. In the next elections, they will field CBI, Indian Mujahideen who will take charge of polls to save Congress", said Modi.
Modi made fun of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, saying their leaders were only busy in minting money and saving their skin from CBI.
On his part, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi lashed out at the BJP government in Chhattisgarh holding it reponsible for the security lapse leading to the killing of top Congress leadership.
"Our leader Nandkumar Patel was going to become Chief Minister. In order to prevent him from becoming CM, he was killed. Patel was the voice of the people. His murder was not only his, but the murder of the voice of people", said Rahul Gandhi while trying to strike an emotional chord with the people in Rajnandgaon.
Rahul Gandhi mentioned the Darba Ghati massacre in which top Congress leaders were killed by Maoists.
"They (BJP) claim to fight against terrorists, but here our entire top leadership was killed because of their security lapse", said Rahul Gandhi.
"They (BJP) only make hollow promises. It's the Centre which gives money to Chhattisgarh. What are they doing with the money? The BJP government has grabbed six lakh acres of land belonging to poor tribals and sold it to capitalists", said Rahul Gandhi.
"Congress is the party of the poor, of women, of youths, of tribals. And Congress is going to come back to power in Chhattisgarh", Rahul Gandhi emphatically said.
Here goes the live reporting of the two rallies:
