Congress govt will deposit Rs 1 lakh in account of a woman in every poor family: Rahul Gandhi

"We are listing out the names of all poor families in the country. PM Modi has made crores poor...We will be choosing one woman from those families and depositing Rs 1 lakh annually in their accounts," Rahul Gandhi said speaking at Pune on Friday.

"Crores of women will get Rs 1 lakh annually or Rs 8500 monthly in their bank accounts automatically through computer and will go on till the time this family reaches above the poverty line," he added.

Responding to criticism of Congress' welfare schemes that allegedly spoil the beneficiaries, Rahul Gandhi pointed out how rich businessmen like Adani do not get spoilt when their loans worth crores are not waived off.

"We do not care what the media says. We framed the MGNREGA scheme and they say that we are spoiling the poor and making them lazy. When Adani gets crores of Rupees don't they get spoilt? But poor labourers get spoilt? When farmers' loans get waived off they say we have spoilt the farmers. When Rs 16 lakh crore loans get waived they call it development," the Congress MP said.

On the promise to conduct a caste census when the Congress government comes to power at the Centre, Rahul Gandhi said, "We have clearly written in our manifesto - when our government comes to power, we will have a caste census, an economic survey and a survey of all organisations."

Calling the caste census a "revolutionary step", he said, "We will find out how many people in press-media, corporate world, private hospitals, colleges and universities are from backward classes, SC and ST. This will bring out the truth. People will get to know about their participation. This is a revolutionary step that has not happened earlier in India's history. The day the caste census takes place, people of the country will get to know the reality of India..."

Speaking about the electoral bonds scheme that was recently scrapped by the Supreme Court, "This electoral bonds scheme is illegal. Corruption has taken place in it. Shut it down. Do you know what was happening in the Electoral Bond scheme? We asked for dates. They were not giving us."

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the electoral bonds scheme, Rahul Gandhi said, "PM Modi says that he is cleaning politics. If he is cleaning politics, why did he hide the names of all donors? When their names come to light, it comes to be known that a company receives contract worth thousands of crores of Rupees and soon after that the company gives money to the BJP."

Speaking about alleged cases of quid pro quo in the electoral bonds scheme, Rahul Gandhi said, "CBI opens a case against a company, that company gives thousands of crores of Rupees to the BJP and the case closes. Narendra Modi is doing corruption openly before the country. But media says nothing."

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency. Rahul Gandhi also contested from Kerala's Wayanad, where voting took place on April 26 in the second phase. (ANI)