BJP accuses Cong of votebank politics

Asking BJP cadre to be battle ready, the party leadership on Monday accused the ruling Congress of indulging in votebank politics and creating a fear psychosis in the minds of the minorities about the saffron party coming to power. The Opposition said the country’s security has become a matter of concern under the UPA’s rule and the nation has become “helpless”. The party claimed the people were looking at the “emerging leadership” of the BJP with hope and want it to come to power. The party also attacked the Congress over women safety issues.

The party asked its workers to highlight the achievements of states where it is in power and the “failures” of the Congress- ruled states as well as the Centre in the run- up to the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

At a function organised by the BJP’s women wing, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, asked the women workers to be ready for early polls. BJP chief Rajnath Singh accused the Congress of playing a crude joke with the people of the country by changing the definition of poverty.

“Mission 2014 may even become Mission 2013 looking at the state of this government,” Ms Swaraj said. She advised the cadre to be well- versed with the party’s viewpoints and counter the opponent accordingly.

Former party chief Nitin Gadkari, while addressing participants who had gathered from across the country, alleged that the ruling Congress was creating a fear psy- chosis in the minds of the minorities that if BJP is voted to power it will do injustice to them. “They are giving this wrong impression for votebank politics… We follow a policy of neither appeasement nor discrimination...” Mr Gadkari said.

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for lack of leadership and said “there is a leadership failure in UPA.”

“Today no Congress leader is saying that he ( Dr Singh) will be projected as a leader in the forth- coming elections... Congress leaders are saying that maybe they will not project anyone as a leader. They want to run away from the contest of leadership issue. They want to hide themselves from the issue and in the defensive,” he said, adding that the BJP will go ahead in the next elections as “people are looking at the BJP’s emerging leadership with hope.”

Citing the incident of suspension of a woman IAS officer by the UP government, which is giving outside support to the UPA, he said