Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at a rally in Chhattisgarh
Congress Vice-President
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on
Narendra Modi, saying the BJP leader would go to any extent to become the Prime Minister.
"Modi wants to become the PM and he can do anything for it. He will divide the nation into pieces, make people fight against each other," Mr Gandhi said at a rally in Kanker in Chhattisgarh.
The BJP, led by Mr Modi, is widely tipped to win the election, but opinion polls suggest it may fall short of a clear majority.
(India Votes 2014: full coverage)At the rally, Mr Gandhi also invoked the 'Snoopgate' controversy or the alleged spying on a young woman by police officers in Gujarat in 2009 to target the BJP's prime ministerial nominee.
"The Gujarat Chief Minister gets women's phones tapped, sends policemen behind them and then we see posters talking about empowerment of women," the Congress No. 2 said.
Earlier in the day, his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi had, at a rally in Karnataka, alleged that women were subjected to atrocities in Mr Modi's Gujarat, in an apparent reference to the spying scandal.
(Snoopgate reference in Sonia Gandhi's attack on Narendra Modi)"You have witnessed how the personal lives of women were played with in their (BJP) rule... Various atrocities are being committed on our sisters in Gujarat. This is their real face," Mrs Gandhi said at a rally in Kolar in Karnataka.
The 'Snoopgate' scandal surfaced when a senior Gujarat police officer submitted tapes of secretly-recorded phone conversations in 2009 to the CBI. The conversations allegedly indicate that the woman was being tailed at the instructions of a "saheb" or big boss. The Congress has alleged that this man is Mr Modi, who is the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
('Stalking sahebzada': Congress targets Narendra Modi for alleged Snoop-gate)The BJP said the woman's father, who was known to Mr Modi, was worried about her safety and had asked for her to be protected. The father, in a letter, verified that claim.