NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday stepped up its attack on NDA Vice-Presidential nominee M Venkaiah Naidu over allegations against him on issues of probity, saying the defence given by him and the Telangana Government have left more questions than answers.

Taking a dig at the PM’s talk of “zero tolerance on corruption and wrongdoing”, AICC spokesman Randeep Surjewala said all such claims had turned hollow after Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah failed to give satisfactory replies to the party.

Surjewala said the Telangana Government and Naidu have admitted that ‘Swarna Bharat Trust’ of Deepa Venkat (Naidu’s daughter) was exempted from paying various developmental charges amounting to Rs 2.46 crore to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.

He added that Naidu has sought to justify this unilateral waiver by saying that 16 more trusts were given exemptions. “What the Telangana government and Naidu did not tell, as to why similar exemption was not granted to hundreds of other NGOs by the government? What was the criteria for grant of exemption to Naidu’s daughter’s trust?” he asked.

Surjewala said the Telangana government had accepted that 350 Toyota vehicles were purchased directly from Harsha Toyota, owned by Naidu’s son without any tendering —reportedly at DG (Supplies and Disposal) rates, but the next lot of 350 vehicles were purchased through a tender by Radha Krishna Motors. “Why were both lots of vehicles not purchased through tender? Was the conditionality of tender violated in the purchase of first lot of vehicles? ” he asked.

Surjewala said Naidu has “not denied that he had secured 4.95 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh reserved for the poor and the destitute”.

“Is it not a fact he was forced to return the land as it was illegally allocated to him? Does it absolve him of his culpability?” he asked.

“Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion. People of India demand answers. It is time PM, BJP chief and Naidu answer these questions instead of hiding behind platitudes,” Surejewala said.