Prime Minister Narendra Modi played his trump card of corruption addressing an election rally in Hosur, a town Tamil Nadu, and targeted Congress leaders for its alleged involvement in corruption scandals.

In a speech that lasted about 45 minutes, the Prime Minister barely touched on issues that are being discussed within the state such as prohibition, freebies. Instead, he took on the Congress over the 2G and Agusta Westland scams. Hosur has traditionally been an area in which the Congress fares well.

Modi spoke about the BJP’s “clean” image and said that since it came to power at the centre, his party had done a lot of good work and that it was not marred by allegations of corruption. “The BJP has been in power for two years at the centre, and there is no corruption case so far.”

Taunting the Congress over the Agusta Westland scam, Modi said, “Our relatives, nor my relatives are in Italy. I have not seen Italy. Italian court has called out some people from the previous government. How then, is the present government to be blamed?”

This was perhaps in response to the Congress who said in Parliament that specifications to the order of the VVIP helicopters were made under the Vajpayee government, and not under the UPA.

“The helicopter scam accused should be punished,” Modi said. Around 10,000 people had gathered to listen to the Prime Minister and the crowd was enthusiastic. Some of that excitement however, was dulled by showers during the rally.

Taking on leaders of the Dravidian parties for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, Modi said “People are soaked in corruption, Tamil Nadu should be free of corruption if it has to be saved,” he said.

Talking about the floods, he said that earlier it took three days for the news to reach the centre, but his government had acted swiftly. BJP workers had done a lot towards flood relief, he said.