Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday took a dig at the Congress saying that their party leaders will hold a press conference on June 4 and blame the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the loss.

Shah also claimed that while Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi will not be blamed for the defeat, but party president Mallikarjun Kharge will lose his job. Follow full coverage of the Lok Sabha elections.

“I have the details of the first five phases. In five phases of the Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi has crossed 310 seats. Rahul will not cross 40 and Akhilesh Yadav will not get even 4 seats on June 4,” Shah said at an election rally in Kushinagar.

“On the afternoon of June 4, you will see, Rahul baba’s people will hold a press conference and claim that they lost because of the EVMs. The blame for the loss will also fall on Kharge.”

He also said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was born in the house of a backward, both Rahul and Akhilesh were born with a silver spoon and don’t know about the problems being faced by people of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

“They did not like the weather of the country. Rahul used to go to Thailand on leave every six months. They did not tolerate the heat of Purvanchal. While PM Modi has not taken a single leave in his tenure,” he pointed out.

He also accused the two of being involved in corruption, and emphasised that PM Modi has never faced any such allegation.

“As chief minister and prime minister, no allegation of corruption of even 25 paisa was raised against Modi while the two “shehzade’ (Rahul-Akhilesh) were involved in corruption worth ₹12 lakh crore,” he alleged without elaborating.

Raising the Ram temple issue, the Home Minister said the SP government had opened fire on Ram bhakts while the Congress stalled the temple issue for 70 years.

“Modiji not only did bhoomipujan of the temple but also attended pran pratishtha, renovated Kashi Vishwanat temple, and worked towards gold plating of the Somnath temple,” he said.

(Inputs from PTI)