Did BJP check the bill when Rahul Gandhi bought `Rs 70,000 jacket`, asks Sidhu

Amid the war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over a jacket that Rahul Gandhi wore during an event in Meghalaya, the latest to come to the defence of the Gandhi scion is Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The Congress leader defended his party chief saying he has “never seen a man like Rahul bhai who lives such a simple life while sitting on such important post”. Sidhu, who was earlier a member of the BJP, also asked if the critics of Rahul saw the bill when he was buying the jacket.

“Did they go to see the bill when Rahul Gandhi was buying the jacket? How do they know?” asked Sidhu. “I have never seen a man like Rahul bhai who lives such a simple life while sitting on such important post,” he added.

This came after the Congress party laughed off the allegations of the BJP that Rahul Gandhi wore a jacket worth Rs 70,000. Senior Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said that similar jackets could be found for Rs 700 too. "I can show you the same jacket for Rs 700," she said.

It was alleged by the Meghalaya BJP that the jacket Rahul Gandhi wore was worth Rs 70,000. Taking to microblogging site Twitter, the Meghalaya BJP posted, “So @OfficeOfRG, soot(pun intended!)-boot ki sarkar with ‘black’ money fleeced from Meghalayan State exchequer by rampant corruption? Instead of singing away our woes, you could have given a report card of your inefficient govt in Meghalaya! Your indifference mocks us!”

The jacket is believed to be a two-in-one down puffer jacket from Burberry, which is a British luxury fashion brand. On the Bloomingdales website, the cost of the jacket was listed as Rs 68,145.

BJP’s “soot-boot” reference was in retaliation to an earlier jibe by Rahul Gandhi on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Referring to a monogrammed suit that PM Modi wore during a meeting with the then US president Barack Obama in 2015, the Gandhi scion had said that the NDA government was a “suit-boot ki Sarkar”.