BJP: Possible CMs parade

Arun Shourie as the event was being telecast live.

So Bharti took a swipe at the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister without naming him, by reading excerpts from a book circulated by Digvijay Singh in his state. The excerpts pointed at the Congress party being one led by a ‘‘foreigner’’ while other leaders grovelled at her feet.

This and other excerpts from the book led to acrimonious exchanges between the treasury benches and the Opposition, with the Congress objecting to the authenticity of the book. To authenticate the source, Speaker Manohar Joshi asked Bharti to place a signed copy of the book on the table of the Parliament. Bharti took the opportunity to address masses who could be watching her to highlight the foreign origins of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Not to be left behind, Vasundhara Raje took on the agenda of Rajasthan in her speech.

References to the Oppositions’ criticism of the Government’s policies were kept at a minimum, while the reservation policies of the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan were criticised. When this drew protests from the Congress benches, the NDA partners rallied around Raje to help her finish her speech.

Raje said that while Gehlot had announced a 14 per cent reservation for the backward classes, there were no details of what reservations had been made for specific castes. She also criticised Sonia Gandhi’s trip to Rajasthan during the drought calling it a mere attempt ‘‘to wave hands and smile at people’’.