Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the latest CBI showdown, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the premier investigating agency’s Director Alok Verma was sent on leave “as a punishment”, because the CBI had started raising questions over the Rafale aircraft deal.

Mr. Gandhi questioned the NDA government’s decision on the CBI, at a huge “Sankalp Maharally” in poll-bound Rajasthan’s Jhalawar district, which is the home turf of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. While Ms. Raje represents Jhalrapatan constituency in the State Assembly, her son Dushyant Singh is Lok Sabha MP from Jhalawar-Baran.

“Do you know, what happened last night?” Mr. Gandhi asked the crowd rhetorically. “The country’s chowkidar [watchman] removed the CBI Director because the agency was raising questions on the Rafale deal. It was asking for documents on the deal.”

Mr. Gandhi said that the chowkidar, who had sought votes in 2014 with a promise to protect the nation, had “committed theft” and despite his tall claims, had not waived a single rupee of farmers’ loans. “On the other hand, he wrote off bad debts worth ₹3.50 lakh crore of the top 15 businessmen of the country,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi also alleged that cricket administrator Lalit Modi had given crores of rupees to Ms. Raje’s son. “Not only this, Vijay Mallya left the country after meeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament and Mehul Choksi deposited money in the ICICI Bank account of Mr. Jaitley’s daughter,” he said.

Asking people to bring the Congress to power in the State by voting for it in the upcoming Assembly election, Mr. Gandhi said that the party’s tickets would be given to workers connected to the grassroots, adding that the “strings of those landing by parachutes” would be cut.

Mr. Gandhi accused the BJP-led government of closing 25,000 schools in the name of rationalising educational institutions and said that the Right to Education Act was being “violated with impunity” in the State. The government employees’ prolonged strike was also a clear indication of the BJP’s unpopularity, he said.

Mr. Gandhi started his 80-km-long roadshow enroute to Kota after addressing the rally and stopped at several places to interact with the public and Congress workers at street corner meetings. Party workers welcomed him at several places including Suket, Dabade and Sangod , while the general public gathered in large numbers at Jagpura, Anantpura, Aerodrome Circle, Kishore Sagar and Talab Road in Kota city to greet the Congress chief.