Taking the Modi Government’s poll plank of development head on, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday that these were all false claims of a “government of swindlers”. She charged the BJP Government with duping people by making “false promises”.

Addressing an election rally here, Sonia said the Congress, unlike the BJP, matched its words with deeds. She pointed out that if Gujarat had indeed achieved all-round development under Modi, why were 50 per cent of cotton farmers in debt in north Gujarat, being even denied adequate power supply to run their tubewells.

Referring to industrialists who have reportedly drawn benefits out of the Modi Government’s policies, Sonia alleged that for the BJP, development meant the progress of just a chosen few.

Stating that communalism and terrorism were dangerous for civil society, Sonia said the Congress had always fought it.

Referring to Modi’s oft-repeated complaint that the Centre was discriminating against Gujarat, she said the UPA Government had set up a corpus fund of Rs 25,000 crore to raise the procurement price of cotton so as to ensure that farmers got a reasonable price for their produce. She added that the Centre has also made available farm loans at an interest rate of seven per cent rate, but the BJP Government was not taking any interest.

Sonia further said that the Centre had allocated Rs 1,000 crore for development of the border areas in the state and another Rs 6,000 crore under JNNURM schemes in cities and towns of Gujarat.