Under Congress, poverty of its leaders was eradicated: Gadkari

Senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari said here Wednesday that four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family have promised to eradicate poverty without success.

Only the poverty of Congress leaders was alleviated in the process, he quipped, addressing BJP workers in Mandrem Assembly constituency in Goa.

A by-election will be held in Mandrem on April 23.

The Union minister said that Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister, fought elections on the plank of poverty eradication.

"But people remained poor...Later Indira Gandhi fought the elections on the same issue but she too could do nothing," Gadkari said.

Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister and Sonia Gandhi when she became Congress president repeated the same 'Garibi Hatao' slogan, he said.

"In the current election, the great grandson of Nehru (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) is contesting on the same plank of Garibi Hatao (eradicate poverty)," he said.

"Why is that the Congress, despite ruling the country, could not ...