Sangli, Maharashtra: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge began the fracas by delivering an incandescent speech during a Congress rally in Sangli, Maharashtra in which he vilified the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Calling the two leaders ‘politically dangerous’ Kharge said the influence they wield was poisonous.
To assure, Kharge said, “If there is anything politically sensitive in India, it is the BJP and the RSS.” They are akin to venom. The given political forces are poisonous and dangerous just like the snakebite, and they have to be exterminated.
The Congress leader, however, went on with ridicule of the BJP and pointed out that those contesting the Maharashtra polls were more in number than the ones actually being fielded. ‘From Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, other leaders everybody is campaigning here.’ He pointed out that even UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath also attended RAISE-2018 show and he has home drowning tragedy of ten children in Jhansi hospital fire.
Kharge used the occasion to criticise Modi for constant campaigning even amid tensions between India and Pakistan and internal issues like the ethnic conflict in Manipur. “This is not a national election; it is state assembly election… yet the hunger for power remains limitless,” he said jokingly but in a critical tone about Modi’s motives adding speciously that Modi chooses to travel to other countries instead of tackling the internal issues.
Kharge also got a dig at Modi on foreign policy making by asserting, “While he was here yesterday, today the same man is across the seas when Manipur is in such dire straits.” Women are violated but Modi has not seen fit to visit Manipur. I tell him, ‘You need to try to develop our country first.’
Regarding internal party realities Kharge spoke about Congress intentions to maintain unity within the family of the late Vasandada Patil. On this, he focused on loyalty, saying MP Vishal Patil has been readmitted into Congress, noting, “Those that the party promotes should not betray the party.”