BJP Leaders Indicate That Congress Attack Will Only Sharpen

BJP Leaders Indicate That Congress Attack Will Only Sharpen. The election of Mallikarjun Kharge as the Congress president is unlikely to hinder the BJP’s campaign on dynasty politics.

The BJP party leaders mentioned that their political attacks against the Congress and its leaders will only get more intense as the 2024 general election nears.

A few hours after the Congress election result was announced, BJP national general CT Ravi tweeted, “During 2004 to 2014, Fake Gandhis ruled India through a remote-controlled Prime Minister.”

The BJP has indicated that it will not back down when it comes to the Congress. Senior BJP leaders, who wished to remain anonymous, said the party is going to continue talking about how Kharge was “hand-picked by the Gandhis.”

A senior BJP leader believes that Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s new position is simply symbolic, and that the true power will be with the Gandhi family. “Just as the National Advisory Committee (NCA) headed by Sonia Gandhi was known as the super PMO [Prime Minister’s Office] during Manmohan Singh’s tenure (as Prime Minister)”.
“Kharge will only be the party president in name. The (Gandhi) family will call the shots and it will reiterate what we have been saying – that only they control the party,” says this senior BJP leader.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi defended his party and said “The BJP is not shedding their bad habits as easily as people would like. When they forget their oldest allies in Punjab and Maharashtra who came from established political families, it’s easy to see they don’t have many friends.”

Singhvi also pointed out that Gandhi family members “assumed no governmental positions for 30 years, despite having had a clear opportunity to.” The Congress spokesperson said that the selective amnesia of Nagpur (Gandhi’s birthplace) arises when the remote-controlling Nagpur Pact is mentioned.

To date, no member of the Gandhi family has contested this election in order to become the party president. Not only that, they’ve also stayed away from campaigning for any candidate. This further emphasizes that the Congress is a democratic party.

The BJP has consistently attacked Congress for promoting dynastic politics in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has flagged the issue of dynastic politics. He points out how it has hurt the country by only promoting a handful of families, who have gotten to thrive over time. At the BJP’s national executive committee meeting in Hyderabad, underlining the pitfalls of dynastic politics he said, “parties that follow the succession model are now on the verge of perishing.”

A second BJP functionary said, “Kharge’s credentials as a long-term lawmaker or his caste won’t matter. He was picked for the job.” “We saw what happened to those who called for changes and more transparency; they had to leave the party,” the second functionary said, referring to the exit of senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal, who were part of a group that wrote to Gandhi seeking changes in the party’s functioning.

The senior Congress leader and Kharge will be referred to as a “proxy” for the Gandhi family as the BJP assembles its campaign. Raman said, “The BJP will highlight that he had no intention of contesting the polls, it was decided at the last minute. He is past 80 and is not likely to be seen to be taking an independent line. So, the BJP will sustain the campaign against the Congress.”