NYAY is surgical strike against poverty: Rahul Gandhi

PURULIA (WB): Congress president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said he does not believe in making "false" promises like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that his party's proposed minimum income guarantee scheme NYAY is akin to a surgical strike against poverty.

Addressing an election rally here, Gandhi claimed that only the Congress can defeat the BJP, something no other party, including Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, can do.

"NYAY will be implemented if the Congress is voted to power. It will help eliminate poverty from the country. NYAY is a surgical strike against poverty," he said.


Five crore poor families will get Rs 72,000 annually under this project, he said.

"Modi failed to keep his promise of depositing Rs 15 Lakh into the bank accounts of people. I do not believe in making false promises like him," he said.

Asserting that only the Congress has the potential to defeat the BJP in the elections, Gandhi urged the people to vote for his party.

Slamming the prime minister, the Congress chief said, "Modi is the chowkidar of the elite like industrialists Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya, and not of the common people."

"Most of them have committed crimes, looted public money and fled the country," Gandhi alleged.

Calling demonetisation a "major scam and a disaster which ruined people and wrecked the economy", he asked voters to learn a lesson from it and defeat the BJP.

Alleging that the prime minister is trying to divide the country along communal lines, Gandhi claimed, "Wherever he (Modi) goes, he spreads hatred and vitiates the atmosphere."