With 20 more seats, they would be in jail: Kharge's attack draws BJP's 'Emergency DNA' response
New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, during his visit to Jammu and Kashmir, voiced confidence about his party's prospects in the upcoming assembly elections, while taking aim at the BJP. He claimed that if the opposition had won 20 more seats in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP leaders would be behind bars, resulting in a sharp retort from the BJP, which accused Congress of retaining an 'Emergency mindset.'
Speaking at a rally in Anantnag, Kharge belittled the BJP's performance in the last elections, stating that despite BJP's claim of winning 400 seats, they only secured 243, while the opposition came close with 234. He went on to suggest that the BJP was relying heavily on coalition partners like Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U) to stay in power.
Kharge also criticized the BJP for failing to deliver on promises of job creation and infrastructure development in the region. He assured that a Congress-led government would fill one lakh vacant government posts in Jammu and Kashmir and boost employment through factory and manufacturing initiatives.
In a bid to woo voters, Kharge unveiled five key guarantees if the Congress-National Conference alliance wins the upcoming elections, including a 25-lakh health insurance scheme for families, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, and monthly financial support for women heads of households.
The BJP quickly responded to Kharge’s comments, with spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla accusing the Congress of exhibiting a 'dictatorial mentality' and invoking memories of the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. He questioned Kharge’s remarks, particularly his earlier statement that winning the J&K elections would give the Congress control over the entire country.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
