Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai said the Congress had vilified industrialists in the country and “Ambani-Adani” was a dirty word for the party. Annamalai’s remarks come after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of having a “deal” with “Ambani and Adani”, claiming the party had stopped raising the issue in the election season.
In an interview with India Today, the IPS officer-turned-politician said, “Congress has been running a narrative against industrialists since 2019. What the Prime Minister meant to say was that now you tell us how much money you have taken from the industrialists you have been vilifying for so long.”
The Coimbatore BJP candidate was in Hyderabad to campaign for the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Telangana in the fourth phase of elections.
“In Congress’s mindset, industrialists make money illegally. Ambani-Adani is a dirty word for the party. They should tell us how much money they have taken from the industrialists?” he further said.
On Wednesday, while campaigning in Telangana, PM Modi questioned why the Congress stopped attacking the top industrialists and wondered whether the party had “struck a deal with Ambani-Adani”.
The Prime Minister asked if the party had received “tempo loads of black money” from the two industrialists.
PM Modi’s remarks were seen as a change in the narrative on the ‘Ambani-Adani’ issue, which has been used by the Congress to attack the BJP government at the Centre.
Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders have repeatedly accused the Modi government of favouring industrialists in the country.
In a sharp reaction, Rahul Gandhi dared PM Modi to conduct a probe by the CBI or ED into whether businessmen Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani sent “black money” to his party.
“Modi ji, are you a little scared? Normally you talk about Adani and Ambani in closed doors, but for the first time you have talked about Adani and Ambani in public,” Gandhi said in a video message that was posted on X by the Congress.
“You also know that they give money in a tempo. Is it your personal experience?” Gandhi said.
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