The ruling BJP and Congress traded charges against each other on Friday, as they staged protests in different parts of the Assembly poll-bound Maharashtra in matters relating to the leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

While the BJP held demonstrations against the “anti-reservations” and “anti Constitution” statements made by Rahul Gandhi in the US, the Congress staged protests against the death threats handed to the leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha by BJP leader from Delhi and former MLA  Tarvinder Singh Marwah.

The BJP leaders –including State party chief  Chandrashekhar Bawankule, its national general secretary Pankaja Munde, senior minister Chandrakant Patil and Mumbai city president Ashish Shellar – accused Rahul Gandhi of trampling upon the Constitution by announcing that his party wanted to annul reservations in the country.

Wearing black ribbons, the BJP workers raised vehement slogans against Rahul Gandhi at various places. While Bawankule led the protests at Akola in Vidarbha region, leaders like Pankaja Munde, Patil and Shelar held demonstrations at Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai.    

Simultaneously, the Maharashtra Congress staged vociferous protests against Delhi BJP leader Tarvinder Singh Marwah for allegedly handing a death threat to Rahul Gandhi.

A party activist Akash P. Taywade lodged a complaint with the Sadar Police Station at Nagpur against Marwah for allegedly issuing death threats he made against Rahul Gandhi.

Senior party leaders, including State Congress chief  Nana Patole, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan Congress Legislative Party leader Balasaheb Thorat, party’s state working president M. Arif Naseem Khan, district party leaders and thousands of activists joined the protests in various district headquarters across the state.

The protestors, including a large number of youth and women, carried posters, placards and banners flaying Marwah for targeting Rahul Gandhi, and raised slogans condemning the BJP for not taking action against its party leader in the serious matter.

The leaders accused the BJP leaders of selectively twisting Rahul Gandhi’s statements pertaining to quotas at an interaction during his US visit.

Rubbishing the BJP’s claims that the Congress wanted to do away with reservation, the Congress leaders said that in its manifesto for 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party had committed itself to raising the ceiling of quotas beyond 50 per cent to ensure that benefits reached the largest segments of the deprived sections of society.

“Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly stressed the need to conduct a Caste Census to ascertain the backwardness among various sections of the population. However, the BJP is only interested in creating enmity in the name of castes and religions in the country,” Patole said.

“Rahul Gandhi has never said that he would stop reservation and is indulging in a fake narrative without verifying the truth. They are spreading falsehoods and then carrying out agitation. The people of the country know very well that the BJP is opposed to quotas and is anti-Constitution,”  Thorat said.