BJP continues offensive, Congress hits back over ‘Muslim League’ remarks

Congress on Monday filed a memorandum with the Election Commission of India (ECI) over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Muslim League remarks

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued its offensive accusing the Congress of conspiring to create conflict, confrontation, and division even as the main opposition party on Monday filed a memorandum with the Election Commission of India (ECI) over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Muslim League remarks. Modi said the Congress manifesto for the April-June Lok Sabha elections carries an imprint of the Muslim League, which was formed in 1906 was squarely responsible for Partition and creation of West and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi. (ANI)

The memorandum slammed Modi’s “disparaging” remarks against its manifesto, saying it violated the Model Code of Conduct. “By propagating false, uninformed, and vexatious claims, Shri Narendra Modi has attempted to evoke an emotional response from the electorate by using the horrors of Partition, in a bid to polarise voters,” the memorandum said.

In a post on X separately, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of BJP’s forerunner Jan Sangh, was in “league with the Muslim League in the government in Bengal when Gandhiji launched the Quit India movement.” He blamed Mookerjee for being “singularly responsible” for the partition of Bengal.

Kharge hits out at the BJP

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge also referred to Mookerjee and attacked the BJP, saying its “ideological ancestors” supported the British and the Muslim League against Indians in the freedom struggle. “Modi-Shah’s ideological ancestors opposed Mahatma Gandhi’s call for ‘Quit India’ in 1942, which was the movement chaired by Maulana Azad. Everyone knows how [Syama] Prasad Mookerjee formed his governments in Bengal, Sindh, and NWFP in the 1940s in coalition with the Muslim League,” Kharge wrote on X.

He questioned whether Mookerjee wrote to the then-British Governor about how the Quit India movement of 1942 could be “combated” and how the Congress should be suppressed. “And for this, he said that ‘Indians have to trust the British’?”

Fresh AAP campaign

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday kicked off a fresh campaign ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi titled “Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se (respond to jailing with vote)”. The two-pronged drive aims to drum up support against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest and to cash in on voter sympathy that the party hopes his incarceration will generate. “We want you [the voters] to empower Kejriwal,” said AAP leader Sandeep Pathak. The campaign was launched a month after Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann flagged off the party’s initial “Sansad Me Bhi Kejriwal, Toh Delhi Hogi Aur Khushhal” drive. AAP leaders said they would take the fresh campaign to the people and inform them that Kejriwal has been arrested in a fabricated case under a “conspiracy” to crush the AAP.

ED calls Kejri aide, AAP MLA

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar and AAP lawmaker Durgesh Pathak on Monday as part of its probe into the money laundering related to the alleged irregularities in the 2021-22 excise policy. People aware of the matter said ED needed clarifications on documents from Kumar and Kejriwal’s engagements. Pathak’s name surfaced in statements related to cash payments allegedly made during AAP’s Goa assembly election campaign. The summons came days after Delhi minister Atishi said Pathak and three other AAP leaders would be arrested after Kejriwal.

TMC stage protests at EC office

A group of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders on Monday complained to the ECI about the “blatant misuse” of central probe agencies against the leaders of opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. It sought “immediate action” to “stop the BJP from blatantly misusing” central agencies and ensure a level playing field. TMC leaders also staged a sit-in outside ECI’s office, prompting the police to detain them.

Congress, NC seal poll pact, dump PDP

The Congress and the National Conference (NC) on Monday sealed an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. Under the pact, Udhampur, Jammu, and Ladakh seats will go to Congress. NC will fight Anantnag, Baramulla, and Srinagar seats. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, is contesting the polls separately. NC leader Omar Abdullah and former Union minister Salman Khurshid maintained that there was limited scope for bringing the PDP on board since there were only six seats in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. “PDP is a part of our INDIA alliance...,” said Khurshid.

Former Union minister to Congress

Former Union minister Birender Singh on Monday quit the BJP ahead of his induction into the Congress. The move came a month after his son Brijender Singh joined the Congress. “I have resigned from the primary membership of the BJP and sent my resignation to party chief J P Nadda. My wife Prem Lata, who was an MLA from 2014-2019, has also quit the party. Tomorrow [Tuesday], we will join the Congress,” said Birender Singh. Birender Singh joined the BJP nearly 10 years ago after over four-decade-long stint with the Congress.