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The Hindu
The Hindu
National
Satyasundar Barik

Congress reduced to a party of brother-sister, says J. P. Nadda

The Bharatiya Janata Party President J. P. Nadda on Thursday said the Congress has reduced  to a brother-sister party while remaining few in the party have been left with job of only clapping.

Addressing party’s booth-level cadres in Bhubaneswar, Mr. Nadda said, “BJP is the largest party in India from ideological point of view. We have stuck to ideology and have not deviated from it during past four generations. For us nation comes first, but regional aspirations also get priority in our programmes.”

“We are national party with regional aspirations. We are cadre-based party with mass following and we have got governance in maximum States of India. We are largest party having 302 MPs in Lok Sabha, 92 members in Rajya Sabha, 1,394 MLAs, 120 mayors and thousands of representatives in panchayati raj systems,” he said.

“In 2019 elections, we won Bihar convincingly, came to power second time in Assam, formed government in Puducherry first time, came victorious consecutively in Haryana, returned to power second time in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, won third time in Goa and formed government for the second time in Manipur,” the BJP chief said.

“What is the position of democracy in India? Whom are we fighting with? The Indian National Congress? Neither it is left being national nor is it Indian. The party is only of brother-sister and the remaining few have been left with a job of only clapping,” Mr. Nadda said.

“Whom are we fighting with? The family-based parties in India? In northern most States of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah constitute father-son duo party. The party of Mehebooba Mufti stems from a family. There are Chautalas in Haryana and Badals in Punjab,” he pointed out.

Mr. Nadda said, “In Uttar Pradesh, Indian National Congress fought in 380 seats and lost deposits in 370 seats. Whom are we fighting with? The Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh and Mulyam Singh Yadav? If one comes little south to Bihar, one finds Rashtriya Janata Party of Laloo and Tejaswvi. In West Bengal, the party can also be called family-based party. Mamta and Abhishek are aunt and nephew. In Jharkhand, Sibu Soren’s party comprises of Hemant Soren and Chhota (Basant ) Soren. In Odisha, it is Biju Patnaik’s party – one man’s party.”

“Down in south in Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy heads the YSR Congress Party – a family-run party. In Telangana whom are we fighting with? The Telangana Rashtra Samithi? In the K. Chandrasekhar Rao-led government, son and son-in-laws are Ministers, daughter was a Member of Parliament and the grandson has not come, otherwise he would have occupied some position. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has its roots from a family, not it is growing independent,” said BJP President.  “All parties in India are family-based. Only BJP is only one which is ideology-based,” he said.

The BJP president lashed out at Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal saying it was neck-deep in corruption. “Without nexus among politicians, corruption cannot take place. The Naveen Patnaik Government has become symbol of misgovernance. It is often reported that patients and diseased are transported by bicycles and pregnant women give birth to babies on road,” said Mr. Nadda.

The BJP chief urged party workers to work in tandem so that the BJD government is rooted out from Odisha.

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