Rahul playing communal politics ahead of 2019 election: BJP
New Delhi, July 13 : The BJP on Friday claimed that Congress President Rahul Gandhi described his own party as a "Muslim party" and said he was playing communal politics ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nirmala Sitharam told the media: "Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress is a Muslim party. He must come clean and clarify his statement.
"Only yesterday ... the Congress President met a lot of Muslim intellectuals... And he said a whole lot of things (that) Muslims are the next Dalits. If all the Muslims who constitute 15 per cent of population of Bihar vote for us, that alone won't help us. We need Yadavs also.
"And to this he adds how his party plans to correct the course. This is an attempt to incite religion-based clashes," Sitharaman said.
Hitting out at the Congress leader, she alleged: "Rahul Gandhi became a janeu-dhaari during the Karnataka elections and now he has become a Muslim-dhaari.
"By calllng Muslims the next Dalits, what is he conveying?" she asked.
Sitharaman said the Congress shall be solely responsible if any disharmony takes between now and the 2019 elections.
"This closely resembles what happened in 1947 when the country was divided on the communal lines. Congress is playing a dangerous game playing the card of religion."
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We are together at home: Sharad Pawar on Ajit Pawar
Mumbai (PTI): Former Union minister Sharad Pawar on Monday said that he and nephew Ajit Pawar are together as a family, but made it clear that the latter was heading a different political party.
“Gharat tari ekatrach ahet (we are together at home least),” the veteran politician said at a press conference at Chiplun in coastal Konkan region.
He was responding to a query about the demand from “various quarters in the state” that the uncle-nephew duo should come together once again.
In July last year, Ajit Pawar broke away from his uncle to join the Eknath Shinde-led government in the state as deputy chief minister. Of late, there has been speculation over his continuation in the ruling alliance.
Asked about Ajit Pawar’s recent remarks the decision to make his wife Sunetra Pawar contest the Lok Sabha polls against Supriya Sule in Baramati was a mistake, the veteran politician said, “He is in a different party. Why should we comment on decisions taken by another party?”
Asked if the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of NCP (SP), Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) had decided its chef ministerial face, Pawar said, “I don’t think that it is an urgent issue at the moment”.
When elections were held after the Emergency, Morarji Desai’s name as PM candidate was not disclosed before polling, he added.
“Our (MVA) attempt is to give a progressive alternative in Maharashtra with help of other parties like Samajwadi Party and Peasants and Workers Party,” he said.
“Our observation is that the people of Maharashtra have made up their mind to give us (MVA) a chance in the ensuing elections,” he said.
Asked about Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu’s claim that sub-standard ghee with 'animal fat' was used to make prasad laddoos at Tirupati temple during Jaganmohan Reddy's tenure as CM, Pawar said, “If anything was mixed, it is very wrong and action should be taken against those involved”.
