NEW DELHI: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “parasite” attack on Congress concerning its allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) upped its attack on the grand old party with the fresh ‘Vikram-Betal‘ swipe following its defeat in the Haryana assembly elections.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala on Saturday termed the Congress party ‘Batal’ — a ghost in the popular collection of stories ‘Vikram and Betal’.In the stories, the character of Betal would always climb on the back of the king named Vikram.
“Be it TMC, SP, Uddhav Sena or Owaisi, ever since the results of Haryana elections came, they are all telling Congress, ‘Rahul, tumse naa ho paayega.’ I think the Congress party has become a parasite party. When Congress faces the BJP without any support, we have seen its condition then in Jammu, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh. Congress stands nowhere. Congress becomes ‘Betal’ and makes its allies ‘Vikram’ and then sucks out their vote bank. So, everyone is telling them to not destroy their vote bank and contest together,” Poonawala said.
Poonawalla further criticised Congress and said, “Even Uddhav Sena mentioned in ‘Saamana’ that why Congress lost Haryana elections but Congress doesn’t want to face the truth. Congress party wants to be in denial like an ostrich. That is why, EVM and the Election Commission are just an excuse, they want to protect Rahul Gandhi from the blame of loss. So, they did the drama of the fact-finding committee yesterday and put the entire blame on a Dalit leader, Kumari Selja.”
He added, “Ever since his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi lost 11 elections, lost Lok Sabha elections. If you look at his career, he has lost more than almost 70 elections. Still, they want to protect him and not question him… I think, to blame someone else for their defeat and not face the truth is the tendency of Congress. Now, even their allies – AAP and TMC are saying that they (Congress) are arrogant and do not have the capability to contest alone. They want to say that they (Congress) are like a parasite… Kumari Selja and BS Hooda have accepted the defeat and that the EC has nothing to do with it. Still, Congress is doing all this drama to protect 2-3 people like Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal…”
Responding to AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s statement on the Haryana election results, Poonawalla said that even Owaisi is pointing out Congress’s failure, as he said, “…Congress party should have taken advantage of the 10 years of anti-incumbency, but it seems that due to their internal differences, BJP got the benefit. If you give the BJP even a little chance in the electoral battle, then the BJP takes advantage of it. After the 2024 elections in the Parliament, I had said that those who are saying that this is a big success on hatred, I had said at the time also that this is not the case, so who is responsible for the success of BJP? You (Congress) are the main opposition there and they had the golden opportunity to defeat BJP but they could not do it…”
Union minister Giriraj Singh says, “Time and again, Congress take its ‘Yuvraj’ to launching pad, but that cannot launch it. Firstly, they tried to blame Hooda for Haryana’s loss to protect their ‘Yuvraaj’, but the fact is people of Haryana rejected them. He (Rahul Gandhi) keeps the folder of the Constitution with him, he has the folder for sure but nothing inside him. He creates confusion just by showing that folder to the people… They (Congress) are saying that they have won J&K but the truth is that BJP has defeated them there so badly that the caricature that he was doing just like a joker has finished.”