Modi, Rahul address rallies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi held rallies in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, respectively, on Friday, sending the political temperature soaring ahead of the general elections

In West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri, Modi accused CM Mamata Banerjee of trying to protect those involved in chit fund scams and warned neither perpetrators nor those shielding them will be spared

Modi said Banerjee's TMC had inherited the legacy of

"bloodshed, violence and atrocity" from the previous communist government

Modi inaugurated the circuit bench the Calcutta High Court in north Bengal.

Banerjee accused Modi of doing politics by inaugurating projects “hurriedly” ahead of the elections

—NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister Addressing a farmers’ rally, Gandhi said the “minimum income guarantee' which his party is promising would not be like the Modi government’s Kisan Saman Nidhi scheme, under which farmers will get only “~17 per day”

Gandhi also alleged that the PMO was directly involved in conducting negotiations with the French side for Rafale fighter jets and this had weakened the Ministry of

Defence's (MOD) negotiations Speaking at the rally, organised to thank him for implementing farm loan waiver in MP, Gandhi also said that food processing units would be set up across the state

“It has happened for the first time in the history of the nation that a Chief Minister sat in a dharna in support of those who looted thousands of poor people. She is trying to protect the looters and those who ruined the lives of the poor” “When we (Congress governments) decided to waive farm loan in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan within ten days (of coming to power), Narendra Modi got scared”

—RAHUL GANDHI, Congress president