Congress hits back at BJP for ‘unparliamentary attack’

Congress hits back at BJP for the unwarranted attack on Sonia Gandhi and PM.

Congress on Thursday hit back at the BJP for its ‘unparliamentary attack’ on its leaders, including party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and asserted that it will continue to work with Left allies to uphold secular democracy.

Joining issue with the BJP, which accused the Manmohan Singh government of failures, Congress said several problems had originated during the previous NDA government and the present dispensation was ‘struggling’ to undo it.

AICC spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan dubbed as ‘insinuations’ BJP leader L K Advani’s allegation that Sonia Gandhi was responsible for ‘Kremlinisation of Indian politics’ by making the Left parties an important player in the nation’s polity.

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Describing Left parties as important allies, she said “the Congress will continue to work hard to protect secular democracy with support from all secular forces, including the Left.”

Defending the relationship between the Congress and the Left parties, she said: “This is a very peculiar characterisation of a natural process of coalition.”

Natarajan, who responded virtually point-by-point to BJP’s allegations, took a dig at the NDA, saying it too was a coalition consisting of 24 parties, “which of course does not exist any more.”

During the BJP National Council meeting here on Wednesday, Advani had likened the UPA to a driver-less ‘motorcar’ whose brakes were with the Left parties.

The RJD’s key face and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tejashwi Yadav, party supremo Lalu Yadav’s son, will again contest from his stronghold Raghopur.

Amid Mahagathbandhan crisis, RJD unveils list of 143, drops 36 MLAs, focuses on ‘M-Y’

Political Pulse4 hr ago

The RJD, lead player of the Mahagathbandhan, released its full list of 143 candidates for the November Bihar Assembly elections. Its key face Tejashwi Yadav will contest from Raghopur, and 41 sitting MLAs have been renominated. The party has dropped 36 sitting MLAs and fielded young leaders, signaling a bid to consolidate its core Muslim-Yadav vote base. The Congress has fielded 60 candidates.

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