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Decide whose slogan to be followed, Modi’s or Yogi’s: Kharge to BJP

Nov 09, 2024 07:45 PM IST

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said BJP leaders give inciting speeches, speak lies and divert people’s attention from core issues

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to decide whether it wanted to follow Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s slogan of “batenge to katenge” (will be slaughtered if divided) or Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message of “ek hai toh safe hai” (We are safe if we are united), as he accused leaders of the ruling party of giving “divisive speeches”.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge address a press conference in Nagpur on Saturday. (ANI)
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge address a press conference in Nagpur on Saturday. (ANI)

Addressing a press conference in Nagpur in poll-bound Maharashtra, Kharge sought to counter Yogi’s remarks and said that several Congress leaders have laid down their lives to unite the country and any leader working towards ensuring unity will not pass such remarks.

The senior Congress leader accused the BJP and its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of provoking people to gain votes.

Citing a newspaper article, Kharge said he read that RSS favoured the slogan of “batenge toh katenge” being raised by the UP CM. “First, you decide between yourselves whose slogan is to be followed – Yogi ji’s or Modi ji’s,” he said, and added, “BJP leaders give inciting speeches and speak lies and divert people’s attention from core issues.”

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Kharge stressed that many big Congress leaders have laid down their lives to unite the country and attacked the BJP, saying, “You only divide but blame others. You say ‘batenge toh katenge’. Those who want the country to remain united will never pass such divisive slogans.”

The Congress leader also targeted the BJP for misleading the people on Congress-led Karnataka government’s record. He said that the party fulfilled all its election promises in the state and made financial allocations for all schemes.

“It is shameful for a Prime Minister to speak such blatant lies and claim that Karnataka is not implementing the promised schemes,” Kharge said and challenged Modi to demonstrate how his government fulfilled key promises, such as recovering black money or doubling farmers’ incomes.

“In my 60 years of public life, I have never witnessed a Prime Minister who lies so frequently and faces no consequences,” Kharge added.

The Congress chief said two big leaders from Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region did not stop big-ticket projects from being shifted from the state to Gujarat because they were concerned about “saving their own posts and not worried about people’s interest”, indirectly taking a jibe at Union minister Nitin Gadkari and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who hail from Nagpur.

There is an MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) wave in Vidarbha, which elects 62 of the state’s 288 MLAs, he said and expressed confidence that the grouping comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) will win the assembly polls.

Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly will be held on November 20 and votes will be counted on November 23.

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