The Congress has stepped up its offensive on Amit Shah asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove him as BJP president and demanded a probe into claims in a media report that a firm owned by Shah’s son saw a huge rise in turnover after the party came to power in 2014.

As part of their strategy, Congress leaders addressed press conferences in several state capitals to target the BJP president over the alleged business dealings of his son while prodding the prime minister to speak on the issue. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Modiji, ...Did you act as a watchman or were you a partner? Please say something.” He also tagged a copy of the news report on the issue in his tweet.

According to the report on TheWire.com, the turnover of Jay Amit Shah-owned Temple Enterprise zoomed by around 16,000 times from Rs 50,000 to around Rs 80 crore during 2015-16. The charge was rejected by the BJP and Shah’s son, who termed the story “false, derogatory and defamatory”.

Rahul also raised the issue as he began the second leg of his campaign tour in the poll-bound Gujarat. Referring to news report, he told a gathering at Kamla village in Kheda district, “This is a strange world. In 2014, the company was nothing. Modi ji came (to power in 2014) and launched Start Up India, Make in India, then introduced Demonetisation and GST. This destroyed small businessmen and farmers. But from this fire, one company comes up. It was nothing in 2014 but in a few months it became so big that its worth of Rs 50,000 rose to Rs 80 crore.” He referred to the tradition of entrepreneurship in Gujarat, and asked whether Gujaratis, who are adept at running businesses, can do it.

Recalling Modi’s assertion that he would neither engage in corruption nor allow it to happen, the Congress leader said, “Now when Amit Shah’s son’s company has grown 16,000 times, Modiji has gone silent.”

“Modi ji had also said another thing (before the elections) that he does not want to become prime minister and be the chowkidar (watchman) of the country’s wealth. Now, where has the chowkidar gone?” Rahul asked.

While Congress leader Anand Sharma spoke in Delhi on the allegations of wrongdoing by the company owned by Jay Amit Shah, its chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala hit out at the BJP in Jaipur.

Objecting to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s “unsolicited advice” that it should select its leaders based on calibre and potential and Sharma said, “The finance minister gave unsolicited advice to the Indian National Congress. We have never prescribed to the BJP who they have chosen in the past, and also in the present, as their president. But my query would be: was Shri Amit Shah chosen by the BJP as party president for his image, intellect, integrity and humane values?” Hitting out at Union minister Piyush Goyal for defending Jay Amit Shah, he asked whether Goyal was “a minister, a spokesperson or business manager.” “The prime minister speaks on every issue... He speaks a lot... There should be a probe into it... Shah should give up his post until the probe is over, like LK Advaniji did, Nitin Gadkariji did when charges were levelled against them,” Sharma said.

In Jaipur, Surjewala said Modi should relieve Amit Shah from the party president post and get the claims probed by a two-member commission of Supreme Court judges. “It is a tough call for PM Modi. Country is looking at him whether he will choose friendship and party politics or truth and morality,” Surjewala said. He said there must be transparency and accountability. “Why shy away from probe if there’s nothing wrong? There is no smoke without fire. The country was waiting for development... but Jay ka vikas ho gaya,” he said. In Kolkata, party spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi said, “It is very easy to order a probe against opposition leaders but it is tough to order a probe against one’s own party leaders.”

In Lucknow, UP Congress chief Raj Babbar said, “This is the new son’s model of doing business,” he said posing a set of seven questions. In Shimla, AICC secretary Ranjeet Ranjan repeated the charges and demanded a probe by sitting Supreme Court judge into companies of Jay Shah.