After Rahul Gandhi's swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘Ek hai toh safe hai' slogan, the BJP hit back at the Congress leader on Monday, calling him “chota popat” which it claimed was coined by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray to mock him.
The party also slammed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over his “poisonous snakes should be killed” barb, saying it shows the party's Emergency mindset which likens rivals to snakes and incites violence against them.
Earlier in the day, claiming a link between the BJP's slogan and the Dharavi redevelopment project being given to the Adani Group, Rahul Gandhi pulled out two posters from a safe he had brought to his press conference in Mumbai -- one featuring a picture of industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Modi along with the caption "Ek hai toh Safe hai" and another showing a map of the project.
“It was a very low-level press conference. Bringing a safe and creating drama around it, holding of this kind of press conference by the so-called top leader of the so-called national party does not suit Rahul Gandhi and the Congress,” BJP MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra said reacting to Rahul Gandhi's jibe.
“Today I say this from this platform and in Rahul Gandhi's language that 'Chota popat ne kiya hei Congress ko chaupat' (he has ruined the Congress).
His name is Rahul Gandhi," the BJP leader said.
"I saw an interview of Bal Thackeray where he referred to Rahul Gandhi as chota popat. From today onwards, Rahul Gandhi's name is going to be ‘chota popat'. This name will now be there on every child's lips in Maharashtra,” he said.
The BJP also criticised Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Addressing a rally in Sangli on the penultimate day before the campaigning for the Maharashtra assembly polls concluded, Kharge used the "killing the poisonous snake" analogy in his speech.
"If there is anything which is politically the most dangerous in India is the BJP and RSS. They are like poison. If a snake bites, the person (who is bitten) dies, Such a poisonous snake should be killed," said Kharge.
Flaying Kharge over his remarks, Patra said, “The BJP condemns it”. “It is the mindset of Emergency because of which you liken your rivals with snakes and incite violence by calling for killing them,” he said, asserting that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress will get a befitting reply from people on November 23, when election results in Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly polls will be declared.
