Narendra Modi alleges Centre spent Rs 1880 cr on Sonia's foreign trips

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today targeted Congress President Sonia Gandhi by claiming that Rs 1880 cr has been spent from the public exchequer on her foreign trips.

"To those Congress friends, who are accusing our government of uncontrolled expenditure, I want to ask: is it not true that on the foreign travels of the President of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, in the past three years, Rs 1,880 crore has been spent from the public exchequer," he said addressing a rally as part of his month-long pre-election tour of the state.

"This clearly means that more than the total yearly budget of Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Rajkot Municipal Corporation combined has been spent only on the foreign trips of Sonia Gandhi and on her luxury hotel stays," he added.

Modi said a response given by the government to an RTI application of a youth of Hisar in Harayana, published in a newspaper on July 12 this year, was the basis for his claim.

And so far, he said, the report has not not been denied either by the government or Gandhi.

Sonia Gandhi will be launching Congress campaign for the state elections on coming Wednesday by addressing a huge rally of farmers in Rajkot. This will be the first visit of Gandhi in the poll-bound state.

"I want to ask the Delhi Sultanate what is the compulsion that they have to allow this uncontrolled spending of poor people of the country," Modi said.

Modi alleged that Sonia Gandhi was getting all those facilities like a special flight, which are available only to the President and Prime Minister, from public funds though she was just an MP.

"Has the Central government by protocol given special status of head of state to Sonia Gandhi?" he asked adding, "Wasn't this money spent from the state exchequer? From the money spent there, we can produce electricity for the whole Gujarat State."

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