SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh Congress on Thursday burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and in other district headquarters during state-wide protests over the Rafale deal.

Party workers, led by state president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Mukesh Agnihotri submitted a memorandum to a representative of Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki. Local Congress leaders in their district headquarters gave memorandums to the respective deputy commissioners.

Earlier in the day in Shimla, party workers carried out a protest march where they burnt Modi's effigy and raised slogans against him.

Speaking at the march, Sukhu said, "The nation wants to know why the Modi government paid Rs 60,145 crore for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, whereas the UPA-II had struck a deal of just Rs 18,940 crore for the same."

The public wants to know why the National Democratic Alliance government paid Rs 41,205-crore more for purchasing the 36 aircrafts, he added.

Reiterating the allegations levelled by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Parliament during a debate on the no-confidence motion, Sukhu said the Modi government had paid Rs 1,670 crore for a Rafale fighter plane, whereas, as per the deal struck by the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the cost of a Rafale jet would have been around Rs 526 crore.

