‘Only Confusion’: BJP Flags Rift In INDIA Bloc After Akhilesh’s ‘Congress Is Finished’ Remark

Last Updated:November 28, 2024, 20:25 IST

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said after the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), it was now the Samajwadi Party that was gunning for the Congress

The BJP put out a video clip from a podcast in which SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has claimed how the Congress sent journalists after him in MP to ask him questions. (Image: PTI/File)

The BJP took potshots at the INDIA bloc saying the alliance was nothing more than a band of enemies that had come together to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the barb mainly aimed at the Congress, it said all the opposition allies were unhappy with the Grand Old Party.

According to BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla, after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Shiv Sena (UBT), it was now the Samajwadi Party (SP) that was gunning for the Congress. He put out a video clip from a podcast interview in which Akhilesh Yadav has claimed how the Congress sent journalists after him in Madhya Pradesh to ask him questions.

“It was the Congress that sent the journalist after me. I am telling the truth, I did an investigation into the matter and found out that the Congress had sent their journalist to ask me questions,” Yadav is heard during an interview with journalist Shubhankar Mishra.

When Mishra asked him what he thought about this since both the SP and the Congress were allies, he said: “It’s alright. There was a time the Congress used to walk the path the BJP is walking on now. The Congress was finished, now the same will happen to the BJP.”

Referencing the video, Poonawalla questioned the merits of the INDIA bloc as an alliance. In a post on X, he said: “After AAP, TMC now SP guns for Congress. ‘Congress is finished, they send their journalists to ask uncomfortable questions to me’. INDI ALLIANCE: no mission no vision only confusion and Modi se obsession (which unites these people).”

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In a video with his post, Poonawalla said all the allies in the INDIA bloc – AAP in Delhi, TMC in West Bengal, Shiv Sena (UBT) in Maharashtra – were against the Congress. And now, Akhilesh Yadav has joined them.

“What kind of an alliance is the INDI alliance? We always said they had no mission, no vision, only confusion, only division, only apna apna ambition (personal ambition),” he said in the video.

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He spoke about Yadav’s claims of the Congress sending journalists after him to ask questions. “AAP says Congress is a burden; TMC says ‘tumse na ho payega, LoP pad khali karo’ (you’re not up for it, vacate the LoP position); Kerala’s CPI(M) calls the Congress communal; Uddhav Sena blames the Congress for losing the election in Maharashtra; in Jharkhand, JMM has asked the Congress to stop aspiring to the deputy CM post; they get only one post in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

“Look at how all of the allies have made the Congress persona non grata. And now, Akhilesh himself is saying that the Congress is his ally, but also saying it is conspiring against him… this is their alliance. No mission, no vision, only Modi obstruction and obsession. And because of the Modi factor, two enemies have ganged up,” he added.