Cong takes a swipe at BJP

With BJP patriarch LK Advani staying away from the party’s national executive meet at Goa on grounds of "ill health", the Congress on Saturday did not lose the opportunity to take a dig at the factionalism emerging in the saffron party.

With BJP patriarch LK Advani staying away from the party’s national executive meet at Goa on grounds of "ill health", the Congress on Saturday did not lose the opportunity to take a dig at the factionalism emerging in the saffron party.

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"Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is not a factor important enough for the Congress, but could be for the BJP and the media. I would hope that whoever is ill recuperates soon. Politics aside, personally, we wish everyone is healthy", Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said.

"Firstly, we have nothing to do with the BJP, should want it (BJP) to stay ill," Singh further said.

"It seems the season is really changing in the BJP," Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed tweeted in response to BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar’s statement that "When the season changes, it is normal for a few people to fall ill".

Senior party leader Renuka Chowdhury reacted to Saturday’s protests by pro-Modi supporters outside Advani’s residence by saying that the situation was "frightening".

"If a man who is virtually the architect of that political party is now faced with that kind of rowdyism, then the nation stands warned of what is going to come to them, and that terrifies us," Chowdhury said.

On the absence of Advani and other senior leaders at the Goa meet, Chowdhury tweeted: "Namo- nitis" is spreading and afflicting senior BJP leaders.

"Anyone from the 'Sangha' who can treat this disease," commented Digvijay Singh.

Earlier, former spokesperson Rashid Alvi said: "I do not want to make any comment as it is an internal matter of that party (BJP). But at the same time, people of the country are seriously thinking whether leaders who are unable to manage their own party affairs and are fighting for unseen power are competent to run a country like India."

The BJP dismissed these attacks by the Congress as "the Modi phobia of the Congress".