Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday targeted the the Congress, hailed the upper caste quota bill, and tried to assuage the concerns of the protesting people of northeast during a rally in Maharashtra’s Solapur.

Citing media reports on Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland helicopter scam, the PM said that he may have also had a hand in the Rafale fighter jet talks held during the previous government.

“I learnt from newspapers that the middleman brought to India in a helicopter scam was not involved in the helicopter deal alone. He had a role even when the previous government was discussing the fighter jet deal with France,” the PM said at the public meeting in the city where he inaugurated a slew of projects.

“Kahin Michel Mama ki Saudebazi se hi wo deal ruk to nahin gayi thi? In tamam sawaloon ka jawab agenciyan to doondh hi rhi hain, desh ki janta bhi jawab maang rahi hai. (Did it fail because of Michel Mama’s dealings? The answers to such questions will be found out by probe agencies. The people of the nation are also demanding answers),” he said.

“Those who sympathise with middlemen and played with national security will have to answer,” Modi added.

Challenging the opponents who are raising fingers at his government in the Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal with France, the PM said that the “friends of commission agents have ganged up and dreaming of scaring the Chowkidar”.

“But this Chowkidar neither sleeps nor is afraid. This clean-up operation will continue,” he asserted.

At the rally to kickstart the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign from this famed spinning textile city in Maharashtra,, the PM also said that the upper castes quota bill passed by the Lok Sabha a day before was a “historic decision” and a slap on the face of those spreading lies and indulging in “minority quota politics”.

“Lies were being spread that the reservations available to Dalits, Tribals and OBCs were sought to be removed… By those playing ‘minority quota politics’. But we have ensured that none of these are disturbed and given an additional 10 per cent. This is a fitting reply to those spreading canards and part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s policy of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikaas’,” Modi said.

He expressed hope that the Bill would now be passed smoothly by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

At the rally, the PM also assured protesting people of Assam and other states of the northeast that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 will not infringe upon their rights.

In the wake of massive protests across northeastern states, the PM made an attempt at assuaging the public anger over the Bill.

“Yesterday, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in Lok Sabha. I want to assure people from northeast and Assam that their rights will not be compromised with this decision,” the PM said.

The PM inaugurated a host of infrastructure projects in Solapur, including the four-laned section of Solapur-Tuljapur-Osmanabad highway, which will connect the city to the state’s Marathwada region.

The PM laid the foundation stone for the housing project under the central government’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana under which around 30,000 houses for the poor will be built at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,811.33 crore.

Taking a swipe at the Congress-led UPA government over housing, the PM said that the construction of only 8 lakh houses out of 13 lakh was done under the “remote-control government” from 2004 to 2014.

“In our 4.5 years, we constructed 14 lakh houses and approved the construction of 70 lakh houses,” he said.

Projects under Swachh Bharat Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) were also inaugurated by the PM.