BJP sees Congress leadership crisis as further reiteration of its dynasty charge

NEW DELHI: BJP functionaries see the Congress leadership crisis as a further reiteration of their dynasty charge and pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s challenge to the Congress in 2018 during a poll rally in Chhattisgarh to appoint a non-Gandhi chief for a full five years.
The challenge was never accepted then, and it has again shown itself in the current crisis, BJP functionaries said. Rahul Gandhi stepped down for Sonia Gandhi after the 2019 loss and now there is a clamour for Rahul to return as party president despite his campaign against Modi being squarely rejected in 2019.

This message of the Congress perpetrating the dynasty lineage even in key states is being pushed now by the BJP, especially in Madhya Pradesh where crucial by-polls are scheduled next month and in Uttar Pradesh where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is seen as the de-facto chief ministerial face of the Congress in the 2022 polls. In Bihar, the BJP feels the ‘dynasty’ factor in the UPA alliance, in the form of Tejashwi Yadav, goes in its favour.

“In MP, CM was Kamal Nath, party president was Kamal Nath and now leader of the Opposition is Kamal Nath…and the Youth leader is Nakul Nath (son of Kamal Nath). The rest of the Congress is anath (orphaned),” CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan said at a party membership function in Gwalior on Monday, referring to the Congress crisis.

He said the Nath family was following the Gandhi model of the Congress in MP. “Digvijaya Singh got his son Jaivardhan Singh made a minister. Now, Kamal Nath’s son whom the ex-CM got a ticket from Chhindwara, has said he is the youth leader in MP. The public does not like such dynasts who have no political presence. Questions are arising in the Congress in MP too over the Nath father-son dominance,” BJP’s MP spokesman Rajneesh Agarwal said.

UP BJP secretary Chandra Mohan said the people in UP would reject Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, anointed as the Congress general secretary of UP, as she had no connect with the state or any performance to show, besides her family lineage.

“She does the politics of dynasty, not the politics of performance. She does not understand the essence and foundations of UP. Her failures are astounding –– from orchestrating the Congress-SP alliance in 2017 to the Mahagathbandan in 2019 and the Congress’ worst performance under her leadership in 2019 when the party even lost Amethi,” Chandra Mohan said.

Vadra is still to shift base to Lucknow although there are only 18 months left for the UP elections. “She should rather shift base to Rae Bareli as Congress will lose that seat too. People of UP have rejected her,” Chandra Mohan said.

In Bihar, state BJP leaders like deputy CM Sushil Modi have been attacking Tejashwi Yadav over his projection as the CM face and the dynasty issue in the RJD. “The present developments only reiterate that the RJD and Congress follow the same dynastic principles of politics which have no more takers among the public,” a Bihar BJP leader said.