Maharashta polls 2019: Rahul Gandhi tries to put Centre on the mat over economic slowdown

Image Courtesy: Twitter/@INCIndia

Latur: Months after quitting from his post as Congress president, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday made his first public appearance at Maharashtra's Latur while campaigning for upcoming state election and launched a scathing attack on the Centre over the state of the economy. 

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for distracting people's attention from core issues, Rahul said that when the youth ask for jobs, the government tells them to watch the moon, in an apparent reference to ISRO's second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2.

"Auto sector, textile sector, the diamond industry is finished but you don't see anything in media. Modi doesn't speak about this at all. This is the highest unemployment in 40 years," Rahul said at the election rally In Latur's Ausa.

Rahul alleged that the objective of demonetisation, and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was to take money from pockets of the poor and give it to the rich.

Days after the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha election 2019, Rahul Gandhi had quit the party post days, accepting the moral responsibility for the party's bad performance. The Congress had managed to get only 52 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats - its second consecutive crash after losing in 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Following this, Sonia Gandhi was named the interim president of the party after Rahul refused to take back his resignation. The Congress is contesting the Maharashtra assembly election in an equal alliance with Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

PM Modi and Home Minister Shah also addressed election rallies in poll-bound Maharashtra on Sunday. The election is scheduled to take place on October 21 and the result would be announced on October 24.