What did Congress do for people during its rule, questions BJP

MUMBAI: Hitting out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for criticising the Narendra Modi government, BJP today said had her party worked for the development of the country during its rule, its strength in the Lok Sabha would not have come down to mere 44 seats.

"Sonia Gandhi had yesterday said in Haryana that BJP only talks and does not work. But I want to ask her, what work has her party done for the country and Maharashtra in ten years while they were in power that people should vote for it now," Union Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad said while speaking to reporters here.

"Had the Congress worked towards the development of India during its rule, the party's strength would not have been reduced to a mere 44 seats in the recent Lok Sabha polls," Prasad, who is also the minister of Communications and IT, said.

An average of 3,700 farmers commit suicide in Maharashtra every year, he said and asked, "What happened to the Rs 11,000 crore package that the Manmohan Singh government announced for Maharashtra? Did that money reach the people."

Reacting to Sharad Pawar's recent attack that BJP had termed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj a 'looter' and were now invoking the warrior king to seek votes, Prasad said, "A peculiar competition to uphold the legacy of Maratha warrior Shivaji is going on in the state, which is nothing but a farce, meant to divert the minds of the voters."

"What has Sharad Pawar done to uphold the legacy of Shivaji Maharaj in the last 10 years when he was a Union minister? How many lines did he write on Shivaji in the NCERT (National Council Of Educational Research and Training) books in the 10 years? His commitment of upholding the legacy of Shivaji is phoney," Prasad said.

"It was during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that the Mumbai airport was named after Chhatrapati Shivaji. The Vajpayee government had also issued a coin in honour of King Shivaji," he added.

Listing out the goodies offered to Maharashtra during the budget, Prasad said, "We were the ones to offer AIIMS to the Vidarbha region. We have also proposed to set up an IIM in Maharashtra and also announced the Mumbai-Bengaluru economic corridor. We have also announced a metro rail in Nagpur. This is our commitment towards Maharashtra."