Why didn't Congress highlight allegations against Modi earlier: Kejriwal

New Delhi: Attacking Congress over Rahul Gandhi's recent charges of corruption against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked why the opposition party had not raked up the issue earlier.

In a video shared on Twitter, the Delhi Chief Minister also asked if Congress and BJP had entered into a deal ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls due to which the UPA major did not highlight the issue earlier.

"The (offices of) Birla were raided on October 15, 2013. At that time, Congress was in power at the Centre. The documents recovered during the raid had Modi's name mentioned. At that time, Modi was not yet the PM," he claimed.

"Why Congress did not highlight the issue earlier? Why did it not tell the country then? It is a big question: was there was a deal between Congress and BJP? This needs to be given a thought," Kejriwal said.

Addressing a rally in the Prime Minister's home state Gujarat yesterday, Gandhi had alleged that in the Income Tax records there are notings of Sahara officials' claims that they had paid Modi nine times between October, 2013 and February, 2014.

Similarly, as per documents with the Income Tax department, the Birla group also paid Rs 12 crore to Modi when he was the Chief Minister, Gandhi had alleged.