New Delhi:
As an embattled BJP scrambles to contain the crisis triggered by the resignation of LK Advani, the Congress seems to be having a smirk on its face. Cornered till recently by the BJP over a series of scams and corruption scandals, the Congress took a dig at the saffron party, saying it was desperate for power.
The party was alluding to the bitter, public tussle within the BJP that finally culminated on Monday with Mr Advani quitting from all party posts. The shocker came just a day after the BJP promoted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the head of the campaign committee at its conclave in Goa, completely dismissing Mr Advani's opposition.
"These are indications of an extreme level of desperation. The BJP, its cadres, its leaders feel that they cannot now tolerate being out of power. They will do any compromise and embrace any idea as long as it gets them power," said Union Minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid.
His party colleague and Union Minister Shashi Tharoor tweeted: "BJP reinventing the Mahabharata here! A Bhishma who thinks he's still Arjun, a Duryodhana who's trying to portray himself as Yudhishtir."
The reference was towards the two main players in this ongoing drama in the BJP.
Mr Advani, who had stayed away from the Goa meet where Mr Modi was formally elevated, had blogged about a
"wounded Bhishma Pitamah on a bed of arrows" in a scene from Mahabharat - the metaphor more than obvious about the veteran left hurt by the turn of events.
The 85-year-old had reportedly objected to Mr Modi being chosen as the campaign committee head as the decision, he said, would end up in the BJP's energies being diverted more towards justifying the chief minister's secular credentials which have been questioned, courtesy the taint of the riots in Gujarat in 2002, when the latter was in office.
Mr Modi, though, has been assiduously trying to shed the "communal" tag, projecting himself as a mascot of development, using the success story of Gujarat.