Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday said that graft allegations against party president Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in defence deals were baseless and hyped in the wake of ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
"I think these things are being hyped in the wake of ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Everything is baseless as there is no research, study backing these allegations. Nobody believes such baseless allegations," said Sinha who recently joined the Congress party from the BJP.
Sinha said the BJP is staring at the defeat in the elections and such tactics only reflect the frustration of the party.
Further hitting out at the BJP, Sinha termed demonetisation as "the biggest scam."
"The record of the BJP government is tainted by many scams. The biggest of these is demonetisation. The government could not recover a single paisa of black money. What was the government's intention behind demonetisation," he asked.
Refuting the reports of displeasure in the Congress over his wife contesting on the SP ticket, Sinha said: "Nobody is unhappy over that decision."
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"I have always been on family terms with Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawatiji. Moreover, our main target is defeating the BJP. Rahul Gandhi, Akhileshji and Maywatiji have the common target of defeating the BJP."
Earlier on Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley questioned Congress president Rahul Gandhi's role in a defence deal awarded during the UPA government to a company allegedly linked to his former business partner.
Jaitley alleged that Gandhi's former business partner was awarded the offset contract in the Scorpene-class submarine deal signed during the previous UPA government.