Pune: AFTER his recent rally in Mumbai, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was again in his element at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi as he ripped into the BJP, alleging that the party was resorting to match-fixing to secure 400 plus seats.

''BJP's slogan of ''400 paar'' is not be possible without match-fixing. The Prime Minister has picked umpires to go beyond 400,'' Gandhi said at the Loktantra Bachao rally of INDIA bloc. The rally was organised in protest against the arrest of Arvind Kejrwial by the Enforcement Directorate for alleged money laundering in the Delhi Government's scrapped excise policy.

The Congress leader said BJP can only win 180 seats. ''It cannot win more than 180 seats without EVMs, social media and importantly with match-fixing,'' he said.

Referring to the ongoing IPL matches, Rahul Gandhi said,''When pressure is put on umpires to give favourable decisions, players can be bought and captains are threaten to win matches, it is ccalled match-fixing in the game of cricket. Lok Sabha polls are going on. For the Lok Sabha polls, the Prime Minister choose umpires. Even before the match is played, two of our players were arrested. The match-fixing is done by the Prime Minister with the help of some crony capitalists to take away the Constitution from the poor.''

Calling the elections a sort of farce, Gandhi said, ''The Congress has no money to fight elections. The Government has frozen the bank accounts of the Congress. We cannot run campaigns or send our party workers to various states for campaigns...What kind of elections are this ?"

Several top leaders of INDIA bloc were present at the rally. Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP (SP) national president Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal, Jharkhand chief minister's Kalpana Soren, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Sena leader Sanjay Raut were among those present at the rally.