The Congress, which won 77 seats in the 2017 polls, has been reduced to 65 due to overflows. Parliamentary elections in Gujarat will be held around November this year.
The charges are skyrocketing ahead of parliamentary elections in Gujarat scheduled for later this year. Days after Sanyam Lodha, pro-Congress independent MLA of Rajasthan’s Sirohi, alleged attempts by the BJP to take MLAs away from Congress MLAs, the big old party reportedly sprang into action and held a meeting of senior Gujarat Congress leaders in New Delhi. The meeting was chaired by party chairman Sonia Gandhi.
Lodha claimed that the BJP is in contact with 10 Congress MLAs in Gujarat.
Speaking to FinancialExpress.com, a Congressional spokesman denied the report that the meeting had been held to discuss possible poaching by the BJP.
Manish Doshi, Gujarat Congress chief spokesman, said Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee chairman Jagdish Thakor, opposition leader Sukhram Rathwa, former GPCC president Arjun Modhwadia and other leaders were in Delhi to support the party’s padyatra. to discuss next month’s commemoration of 75 years of India’s independence.
The Congress party has planned two padyatras: Aazadi Gaurav Yatra from Gandhi Ashram in Gujarat to Delhi, covering 1200 km between April 6 and June 1, and Gandhi Sandesh Yatra from Champaran in Bihar to Beliaghata in West Bengal, covering a distance of about 800 km between April 17 and May 27.
“Today’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi was to discuss our upcoming padyatra to celebrate 75 years of independence. The padyatras will start from Gujarat and Bihar next month. To celebrate, we formed a committee and its details were discussed during the meeting,” Doshi said.
However, Doshi did not completely deny the rumors. Claiming a concerted effort by the BJP to tear down or strip MLAs from Congress, Doshi said: “If you look in the past, the BJP claimed it would win 151 seats in the 2017 polls, but not democratically So they tried to poach the Congress MLAs BJP will keep trying again and again because they are losing public support People are angry with the government – farmers are sad, young people are unemployed, right to education is not for available to everyone, women’s safety is a big issue,” Doshi said.
The Congress spokesman claimed to have a complete policy paralysis in the government and said the BJP government can try everything to create a favorable environment through advertisements, but that cannot change the reality. “Therefore, they will try to break the Congressional MLAs, threaten them with business and create an atmosphere of fear in the opposition camp. The BJP’s behavior so far has been threats and vandalism. But I say it with confidence that the BJP will not succeed.”
He claimed that no Congressional MLA would consider switching sides in the current scenario as elections are near and people are angry with the BJP.
On the other hand, the BJP denied approaching congressional lawmakers, claiming that the big old party’s internal struggles will cause its own demise. Bharat Boghara, vice president of Gujarat BJP, claimed that the Congress has failed to keep its flock together.
“The BJP never asks an MLA from Congress to join the party. Congress has failed to keep its flock together. The internal war within Congress is so exhausting that the MLAs themselves are leaving the party. BJP does not approach Congress’ MLAs. In fact, the situation is such that all the MLAs of the Gujarat Congress are in contact with the BJP. It is the BJP that decides who to take and who not to,” Boghara told Financialexpress.com.
The BJP leader further said that the Congress party is completely broken in the state and does not trust Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
“They believe that Rahul Gandhi is their driver and their bus has an accident. So there is a climate of panic and exodus in Congress. For example, in a recent Youth Congress training program, when Hardik Patel stood up to address them, many who attended the event got up and left the event. Their internal struggle will end Congress,” he claimed.
He said the Saffron Party has drawn up its master plan to win all 182 seats. “Our team works under the chairmanship of Patil ji (Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil). The Gujarat BJP has prepared every committee from every page, every booth, our organization. Congress is nowhere. They have no coordination.”
Responding to a question about the Aam Aadmi party’s aggressive campaign in the state, Boghara said AAP has no land in Gujarat. “They tried hard in the elections in Gandhinagar but were unable to win a seat. In Surat, they won congress seats earlier and later their corporations joined the BJP. There is no organizational presence of the AAP in Gujarat,” he said.
The Congress, which won 77 seats in the 2017 polls, has been reduced to 65 due to overflows. Parliamentary elections in Gujarat will be held around November this year.
This post Congress probes allegations poaching in Gujarat ahead of polls, BJP blames ‘internal bickering’ was original published at “https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/congress-levels-poaching-allegations-in-gujarat-ahead-of-polls-bjp-blames-it-on-internal-bickering/2468286/”
