Mallikarjun Kharge says BJP is 'poison', no need to taste it

Speaking at an event in Mumbai organised to mark the 80th birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday, 20 August, contrasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's minority government — which cannot function without the support of its allies, the JD(U) (Janata Dal–United) and the TDP (Telugu Desam Party), he said.

Congratulating his allies of the INDIA bloc, which has won 234 Lok Sabha seats, he described Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party as "poison" and maintained there was no need to taste it — in possibly a derisive nod at former allies (such as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar) and members of the pre-split NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) and Shiv Sena who moved to ally with the BJP.

Kharge emphasised that the INDIA bloc has given a befitting reply to the BJP in the recent Lok Sabha polls, restricting its seat tally to 240, well below the majority mark of 272 and significantly less than the BJP's 303 tally of 2019.

The Congress chief asserted the BJP's political plans have been hit due to the growing number of parties joining the opposition bloc.

N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), which won 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, are certainly providing crucial support to the BJP-led NDA government.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had his own anecdote about the Rajiv Gandhi regime to serve as contrast to the Modi dispensation.

Acknowledging that the undivided Shiv Sena and the Indian National Congress used to be bitter rivals in Rajiv Gandhi's time, Thackeray noted that they never acted with "vindictiveness" towards each other.

Speaking at the Sadbhavana Diwas event held to mark the 80th birth anniversary of the late former prime minister, whose tenure was cut short by his shocking assassination, Thackeray noted that central agencies never harassed Shiv Sena leaders even though party founder Bal Thackeray regularly and harshly criticised the then-prime minister in his speeches.

Uddhav Thackeray had joined hands with the Congress in 2019 after parting ways with the BJP, leading to a split in the party that saw the likes of Eknath Shinde — now chief minister of Maharashtra — rebel against the scion of Balasaheb Thackeray.

The programme was also attended by NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, who saw a similar BJP-wards split in his party led by his own nephew Ajit Pawar.

Paying homage to Rajiv Gandhi, Thackeray said that despite having a brute majority of more than 400 seats in 1984, he brought in legislation that sought to strengthen the Panchayati Raj and decentralise power. The contrast, again, was obvious to followers of contemporary political events, with several non-BJP-led state governments striving to maintain their federal powers in opposition to the central government and the BJP's diktats, as well as their own governors.

"Sena chief Bal Thackeray harshly criticised Rajiv Gandhi but at no point I recall CBI, ED or Income Tax knocking on the doors of Shiv Sena leaders," Thackeray said, taking a veiled swipe at the BJP-led Union government.

While the incumbent prime minister was not named, the Opposition has had frequent occasion to accuse the Narendra Modi government of misusing the central investigation agencies against its political opponents. Thackeray did accuse the saffron party of resorting to "power jihad" however.

Thackeray also said that Rajiv Gandhi never shied away from tackling challenges and took on them boldly, referring to the steps the former prime minister took to soothe militancy in Punjab and north-east India.

"But (now the attitude is) let Manipur and Kashmir burn," he said, in another swipe at the NDA government.

The Opposition managed to reduce the BJP-led alliance's strength in the Lok Sabha in the general elections, but the ruling coalition has to be defeated decisively in the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra, he said.

The BJP accused him of abandoning Hindutva for the sake of aligning with the Congress, but the saffron party did not mind joining hands with JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu (who have different ideologies), Thackeray noted, pointing to the opportunism of the party and the alliance in power.

With PTI inputs