Kottayam (Kerala), Sep 25: As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday called for uniting the opposition, including the Congress and the Left, to take on the BJP, the saffron party’s chief J P Nadda targeted them by alleging that they were all “corrupt” and “family parties”.
Speaking at the inauguration of BJP district office here, Nadda said the opposition parties were all state or regional parties and most of them were “family parties”.
“Today in Haryana, there is a meeting of opposition leaders. They have all gathered together to celebrate Devi Lal’s birth anniversary. Two things are common to them. One, they all are family parties and two, all are fully neck deep in corruption. Some of them are out on bail and others are accused in cases. “So you can see the kind of challenge the BJP is facing,” he said.
In a major step towards forging a united anti-BJP front, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and other prominent opposition leaders today called for a new alliance that includes the Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, stressing that a bipolar contest will ensure the BJP’s defeat.
Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav also met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi this evening.
Nadda further said that BJP was the only national party in the country as other national parties have “shrunk”. “There is no other national party left except us. All other national parties have been reduced to state and regional parties. They have shrunk.
“Even the Indian National Congress is no longer a national party. It is not even an Indian party anymore. It has become a bhai-behen, brothers and sisters, party,” he said.
Giving examples of family or dynastic parties in the various states, Nadda said, “In Jammu and Kashmir we have PDP and National Conference, in Punjab we have Shiromani Akali Dal controlled by the Badal family, in Haryana we have the Chautala family party, in Uttar Pradesh we have Samajwadi Party controlled by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav family….
“.., in Jharkhand we have Jharkhand Mukti Morcha which is a dynastic party, in West Bengal there is Trinamool Congress Party, in Odisha we have the Biju Janata Dal controlled by the Patnaik family, in Andhra Pradesh we have YSR Party, in Telangana there is Chandrashekhar Rao family party — all these are purely family-based parties where there is no scope for democracy.” (PTI)
