Making an unsparing attack on the Congress that has seen an exit of many senior leaders in recent times, BJP chief JP Nadda on Friday mocked the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra, telling it to first keep its flock together.
Taking a dig at the Congress during a rally in Haryana's Kaithal, he also accused it of being a family-centric party.
"The Congress is now neither a party of ideology nor a national party, nor even a regional party. It has been reduced to a brother-sister party," Mr Nadda said apparently referring to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi.
Referring to senior Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad's exit from the party, he said the people who spent 50 years for it and gave their blood and sweat are deserting it.
"Did you ever think why are they leaving," the BJP chief asked, adding that senior leaders are quitting with a message that the party first needs to keep its flock together.
"Now, they are talking of Bharat Jodo, Bharat Jodo, 'arrey pehle party toh jod lo' (unite the party first)," he added.
A similar suggestion was given by Azad to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in his resignation letter, saying before starting the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the leadership should have undertaken a "Congress jodo" exercise across the country.
The Congress will commence next week its Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. The yatra will cover 3,750 km over a period of 150 days.
Nadda further said the BJP and the governments led by it are working to take the country and states ahead and bringing a change in the lives of people, including weaker sections and women.
Mentioning several parties, Mr Nadda said the BJP is pitted against family-centric outfits, which only care about themselves and their families while the BJP and the governments led by it think about the nation and the country's people.
"Whose party has the Shiv Sena remained now, a family party. The real Shiv Sena has left them," he said.
He said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to bring about a change in people's lives, the family-centric parties are working to save themselves and their children.
"We are for the country, they are for themselves," he said. "And also understand another thing, those who are fighting against corruption, they themselves are on bail. What will they fight," he said without taking any names.
Mr Nadda also alleged that in the past 70 years whenever there was a Congress rule and those of other parties, they tried to divide society and made a brother fight against his brother, pitted one caste against the other, one region against the other for the sake of power.
He claimed that people are reaping benefits of bringing the BJP to power.
"That is why I always say if you have to enjoy the light, remember darkness. If you think of good days, then remember the days of the past, then you will know how difference is made when right party and right person occupies the seat of power," he said.
He said today the country is not only making progress, "but we are progressing with leaps and bounds".
He asserted the BJP is the only party which is working to bring a change in people's lives.
The BJP is the party which works for the welfare of weaker sections, farmers, women, youth, underprivileged and the poor, he said.
He touched upon several schemes initiated for women by the Narendra Modi government while Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was also present, touched upon the zero tolerance policy shown by his dispensation towards corruption and highlighted several pro-people initiatives of his government.
Mr Nadda praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for changing the culture and definition of politics and governance.
He said when the Covid pandemic broke out even the nations with better health facilities were seen struggling but it was due to the prime minister's vision and leadership that India fought the crisis effectively.
He said within a few months India came out with vaccine against Covid and people got a "suraksha kavach" against the disease.
Mr Nadda is on a two-day visit to Haryana, during which he will hold a series of meetings with party workers and leaders. On Friday, he also held party meetings in Ambala and Panchkula. His visit comes ahead of the panchayat polls in the state.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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