Taking a jibe over the reported row in the BJP over a move to field its prime ministerial candidate from Varanasi and Rajnath Singh from lucknow, the Congress on Monday wondered as to why the Opposition party leaders are looking for a safe seats if there is a Modi wave across the country.
The party also hit out at BJP over its overtures to Raj Thackeray in Maharashtra saying while Narendra Modi reaches out to Hindi-speaking people in Bihar, his party wooed MNS, which “humiliated” those from Hindi heartland in Maharashtra. Party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed’s remarks targetting the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate came on a day when Modi addressed a rally in Purnea in Bihar. Ahmed hails from Bihar.
He said it is ironical that senior BJP leaders lK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who took BJP’s tally to a high with their “communal” politics, are now themselves not finding space. “Today when that atmosphere is being further vitiated, their own space is in trouble,” he said. Ahmed also said the very search for a secure seat for Modi and the BJP president Rajnath Singh in Varanasi and lucknow makes one wonder where the “so-called NaMo wave” is. “While we are firmly in our places and contesting from our seats, BJP leaders are up to change their seats,” he asked.
On BJP’s bid to woo Raj Thackeray, he said, “BJP can go to any extent for electoral gains.” Thackeray has promised to support Modi’s PM candidature. The division of NDA votes due to Raj Thackeray’s party fighting polls is attributed as a major reason behind the victory of Congress-NCP combine in the 2009 elections, where the MNS played spoiler in a number of regions.
Amid media reports that the BJP could align with Om Prakash Chautala’s INlD for next lok Sabha polls, Ahmed, who is also AICC general secretary in-charge for Haryana said, “leave the issue of aligning with those outside, the BJP is not even leaving those who are in jail. They are talking even to them.” Chautala is in jail in case of job scam case.