Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment last week, in which he said that the opposition's proposed grand alliance was "maha-milawat"(adulterated), received a Congress comeback on Monday, as party leader Ahmed Patel took a swipe at the PM over his party's recent spree of alliances.
"First Bihar, then Maharashtra, and now Tamil Nadu-- the BJP is busy forging alliances. The big question is-- is it "maha-milawat" or great fear", Mr Patel tweeted on Monday.
The BJP on Monday announced that it would contest the Lok Sabha and assembly elections with its estranged ally, the Shiv Sena. The announcement was made after months of negotiation, during which the Uddhav Thackeray-led party attacked PM Modi's government on several occasions.
On Tuesday, the party announced its alliance with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. The BJP had been assigned five of the state's 39 parliamentary seats - Puducherry adds one more seat.
"The alliance will contest the Tamil Nadu elections under the leadership of the AIADMK and the national elections in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," said Piyush Goyal.
The regional parties and the Congress were in talks for a grand alliance for Lok Sabha elections, but nothing has been made formal yet. Days after the parties said they would contest polls separately, they, earlier this month, met in Delhi and again had talks with each other at Sharad Pawar's house.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who was at the opposition meeting, had said that his party would also compete in the respective states with Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal's parties.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken a swipe at the opposition. "A healthy society keep away from adulterated food. Our healthy democracy will keep away from this maha-milawat," he had said.
With inputs from PTI
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