Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday banked on his party’s promise of depositing Rs 72,000 to the bank accounts of the country’s 20 per cent poor families with income less than Rs 12,000 a month to woo the voters of Assam in two back-to-back election rallies.

Rahul also promised not to pass the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament and return the special category status to Assam once the Congress came to power in the Centre.

Before reaching Assam, Rahul attended another election rally in Nagaland. He addressed an election rally at Bokakhat in central Assam’s Golaghat district to campaign for party’s Kaliabor candidate Gaurav Gogoi and then at Lakhimpur in Upper Assam to campaign for party’s Lakhimpur candidate Anil Borgohain.

In Bokakhat, Rahul said the Congress would get the money from the Rs 30,000 that the “chowkidar” has stolen from the Indian Air Force and put it in the pockets of people like Anil Ambani.

“Narendra Modi has started asking where the money will come from. I am telling the chowkidar where it will come from. Modiji, money will come from the pockets of people like Anil Ambani. You have stolen the money from the Indian Air Force and put it in the pockets of those thieves. We will take that money out and deposit in the bank accounts of the 20 per cent poor people,” said Gandhi.

Rahul began his speech with Modi’s promise of the depositing Rs 15 lakh to the bank accounts of each person ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Thousands of people who had been waiting to listen to Rahul’s speech cheered when he announced Congress’s promise of depositing Rs 72,000 to the bank accounts of the poor. He said the money would be deposited only the accounts of the women.

In Lakhimpur, Rahul said the Congress will work for the benefit of farmers and small scale businessmen. He said during the BJP’s rule the farmers and the small scale businessmen have suffered.

While promising not to pass the citizenship bill Rahul recalled how a number of organisations had met him in New Delhi against the Bill the BJP-led government was going to pass in the Parliament ignoring protests of the people of Assam.

Additional reporting by Rajiv Konwar in Guwahati