"Country knows that Prime Minister is champion of corruption," Rahul Gandhi

Reacting to PM Modi's recent remarks on the scrapped electoral bondsscheme that it was rought for transparency and to "curb black money in elections," the Congress leader asked then why it was cancelled by the Supreme Court.

"A few days ago, the Prime Minister gave a very long interview to ANI. It was scripted, but it was a flop show. The Prime Minister tried to explain electoral bonds in it. The Prime Minister says that the system of electoral bonds was brought about for transparency and clean politics. If this is true, then why was that system cancelled by the Supreme Court. And secondly, if you (PM Modi) wanted to bring transparency, then why did you hide the names of those who gave money to BJP. And why did you hide the dates on which they gave you the money?," Gandhi asked.

"This is the biggest extortion scheme in the world. All the businessmen of India understand and know this and no matter how much clarification the Prime Minister wants to give, it will not make any difference. Because the entire country knows that the Prime Minister is the champion of corruption," the Congress leader said while addressing a press conference with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Ghaziabad.

The remarks of the Wayanad MP came after PM Modi, in an interview with ANI, said that the electoral bond scheme was aimed at curbing black money in elections and said the opposition wants to run away after making allegations. PM Modi said that "everyone will regret it when there is an honest reflection."

Rahul Gandhi further said that earlier he thought that the BJP would win around 180 seats in the Lok Sabha polls but now they may get 150 seats.

"15-20 days ago I was thinking BJP would win around 180 seats but now I think they will get 150 seats. We are getting reports from every state that we are improving. We have a very strong alliance in Uttar Pradesh and we will perform very well," the Congress leader said.

When asked about whether he will contest the general elections from Amethi or Raebarelli, Gandhi said, "This is the BJP's question; very good. Whatever order I get, I will follow it. In our party, all these (selections of candidates) decisions are taken by the CEC."

Elaborating on the party's manifesto for the elections, Gandhi said,"In the last 10 years, PM Modi has reduced the system of employment generation by demonetization, by implementing the wrong GST and by supporting big billionaires like Adani. The first task is to once again strengthen employment, and for that, we have given 23 ideas in our manifesto. One idea is the revolutionary idea of the right to apprenticeship. We have decided that we will give the right to apprenticeship to all the graduates and diploma holders in Uttar Pradesh. There will be training and we will deposit Rs 1 lakh per year in the bank accounts of the youth and we are giving these rights to crores of youth. We will make a law for paper leaks as well."

Voting in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases.

The Ghaziabad seat will witness a triangular contest. The BJP has declared Atul Garg as its candidate from the Ghaziabad constituency after Union Minister and the sitting BJP MP from Ghaziabad, Gen (retd) VK Singh, withdrew himself from the fray for the Lok Sabha polls.

Garg is set to face the INDIA bloc candidate and Congress leader Dolly Sharma, while the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Nand Kishore Pundir.

In the 2019 general elections, proving all the arithmetic of the SP-BSP 'mahagatbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh wrong, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal(S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The SP-BSP won 15 seats. (ANI)