India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday launched a new attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of dividing the country.
He was speaking in Wayanad, his former constituency, in his first rally since being disqualified as a member of parliament.
Mr Gandhi, 52, was expelled from parliament last month after being convicted by a court in a defamation case.
The case was linked to a 2019 election speech in which the opposition chief referred to “many thieves” having the same surname as Prime Minister Modi, who is a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The BJP divides people, makes people fight, threatens people and abuses as much as they want,” Mr Gandhi said.
“I will keep uniting people, respecting every single community, religion and every single idea.
“BJP can be as nasty and evil, I will continue to be as kind as I can even to you [BJP] because this is a fight of two visions of India.”
The opposition leader has accused the right-wing government of silencing him to protect beleaguered billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani who is believed to be close to Mr Modi and his party.
“What did I do? I went to parliament and asked the PM some questions about a businessman, and asked him to explain his relationship with Adani. I kept asking that simple question. I used media reports to show that Mr Adani, who was 600th on the list of richest people, became number two,” he told thousands of his supporters.
Mr Adani has been accused of corporate malpractice, artificially boosting share prices, market manipulation and accounting fraud in his business empire, by the US-based investment research firm Hindenburg.
Wearing a white T-shirt that has become his signature style since his Unite India March, Mr Gandhi participated in roadshows organised by United Democratic Front — an alliance of centre to centre-right political parties in the coastal state led by the Indian National Congress in Kalpetta.
His sister Priyanka Vadra also joined him as the duo waved at fervent crowds screaming — ‘All Hail Rahul Gandhi’.
“The MP is just a tag, it is a position, a post. The BJP can take away the tag, the House and put me in jail but it cannot stop me from representing the people of Wayanad, people of India,” Mr Gandhi said.
“I have been fighting the BJP for quite some years and it surprises me that in so many years they have been unable to understand their opponent who will not get intimidated,” he said.
The Congress leader won Wayanad, a Congress bastion in 2019 with 60 per cent of the vote.
The rally in association with allied parties is a show of strength for the leader who has alleged his expulsion is part of a political vendetta by Mr Modi’s government.
The scion of the country’s oldest political party has challenged his conviction in the case.
Mr Gandhi was apparently taking a dig at fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, who have been accused of bank fraud worth more than $2 billion and large-scale financial irregularities respectively.
The Congress leader was already under fire from the BJP over recent remarks in London, where he accused the Prime Minister of “stifling” the opposition voice and posing a threat to Indian democracy.
The BJP demanded that Mr Gandhi apologise in parliament for his “anti-India” comments.
Soon after his expulsion from the assembly, Mr Gandhi said that he would continue fighting for “democracy”.
