With elections round the corner, BJP on Friday latched on to alleged corruption involving Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra when the Congress was in power in Haryana by firing a fresh salvo against the Opposition party.

Modi during his campaign in Haryana recently had also revived the corruption charges involving him to slam the Congress and its leadership. Vadra has constantly denied allegations of any wrong-doing and accused the BJP of targeting him due to political vendetta.

Echoing Modi’s words, Union Home Minister Amit Shah too trained his guns on the grand old party, alleging that “dealers, dalaals and damaad” used to rule the State before the BJP came into power. He also asked Rahul Gandhi if he knew the full form of MSP as he underlined that the BJP government in Haryana was procuring 24 crops at the minimum support price.

With the Congress seen to be putting up a strong challenge after registering an impressive performance in the Lok Sabha polls, BJP sought to know who will stop Vadra if the party comes to power again. Haryana had become a hotbed of corruption when it was in power between 2004 and 2014, he said.

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed the election in the State is a fight between “Haryana ka laal” (son of Haryana) and “dalaal” (fixer) of the Gandhi family, as it questioned the Congress leadership’s silence on the corruption charges against Vadra and the party’s then Government headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

He said people of the State have made up their mind to elect the BJP to power for a third straight term, asserting that the central Government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the State Government headed by Nayab Singh Saini have worked for farmers’ welfare.

In one case, he noted, Vadra’s company allegedly acquired 3.5 acres of land of farmers and the then Hooda Government changed the land use, allowing him to pocket a huge profit by selling the parcel at four times the purchase price.

In another case, farmers resorted to distress selling of their land after the Congress Government in the State issued a notification to acquire their land and then denotified after a builder linked to Vadra bought their land, he alleged.

Rahul on his part stressed the need for simplifying the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and opening up the banking system to small businesses to promote job creation and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “monopoly model” has taken away jobs in the country.

Sharing a video of the “Dogri Dham with RG” event hosted by the All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) in Jammu on Wednesday, Rahul said that the frustration in the eyes of a young start-up owner from Jammu and Kashmir reflects the struggles of most entrepreneurs and small-business owners in India.

“The systematic attack on small and medium industries through incompetent policies like a bad GST and demonetisation has turned India from a producing economy to a consuming one. At this rate we can neither compete with China nor ensure prosperity for all Indians,” he said, adding that India deserves better.

In his rally Shah also attacked the Congress on the issue of corruption, reservation and over Article 370, which he said, the Congress wants to bring it back. Shah claimed the BJP will return to power in Haryana for third time after the October 5 polls.

“Congress Governments used to run on the basis of cut, commission and corruption while dealers, dalals (middlemen) and ‘damads’ used to rule. Under BJP Government, there are no dealers, ‘dalals’ while there is no question of ‘damad’,” the senior BJP leader said.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s recent US visit, Shah said whenever he wants to say anything “rubbish” ‘ool jalool’, he says in America. Shah accused Rahul of saying that he would end reservation of SC, ST and OBC.

Shah also raised the issue of some rebels contesting as independents by breaking the party discipline and appealed to the people of Rewari to vote only for candidates who have the BJP symbol. He appealed to people to make BJP candidates Laxman Yadav (Rewari), Krishan Kumar (Bawal) and Anil Yadav (Kosli) victorious in the polls.

Predicting a “massive mandate” for the Congress in the Haryana Assembly polls, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the final decision on the chief ministerial pick would be taken by the party high command and it would be acceptable to him.

Asked about the Prime Minister’s attack on the Congress over infighting, the former Haryana Chief Minister said there was no internal rift and the Congress was united.