A day after the Congress said the saffron party should rethink on Modi as its prime ministerial candidate following snooping allegations against former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah, the BJP hit out and said the Congress is rattled with the growing upsurge in favour of Narendra Modi.
Addressing newspersons in Bangalore on Saturday, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu asked the Congress to heed Mahatma Gandhi’s suggestion and disband the party as it outlived its purpose and had no stamina.
He said, “Sensing the mood of the people, they are rattled. They are desperate and are not able to digest the growing upsurge in favour of Narendra Modi and the BJP.
“The Congress is adopting dirty tricks and tactics. It has no answer to Modi, Kapil Sibal has already jumped the gun suggesting BJP should rethink about its PM candidate. I am suggesting that Kapil Sibal and his party should rethink about its continuance and follow Mahatma Gandhi’s advice and disband the Congress.”
“Better late than never because it (Congress) has outlived its purpose, it has no stamina, it has no ideology, it has no agenda and it has no leadership,” he said.
Amit Shah was accused of misusing his powers and police machinery for illegal surveillance of a young woman in 2009, following which Union law Minister Kapil Sibal said, “If these claims are true, it is a very serious allegation and the BJP will be forced to rethink their PM candidate.”
The allegations were made along with release of over half-an-hour of tapped telephonic conversations, purportedly between Shah and Gujarat IPS officer Gl Singhal, which two investigative portals Cobrapost and Gulail claimed have been submitted before CBI in the Ishrat Jahan murder case.
Naidu also charged Congress with crossing “all limits” of decency and said it was trying to bring down the level of public debate.
He said, “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called for maintaining decency in public debate, but we would urge him to first introspect and discuss what his party is doing.”
He said, “The Congress president had called Modi ‘maut ka saudagar’ (merchant of death), its general secretary called him ‘a megalomaniac psychopath liar’, one spokesman called him “Yamadharma raja” and another dubbed him “Ravana”. Every Tom, Dick and Harry (in Congress) makes idiotic statements abusing a leader (Modi) who is the darling of the masses.”
“The mood of India (in favour of Modi and BJP) is irreversible,” he said, asserting that his party would secure a “massive mandate” in the lok Sabha polls.