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AAP, AIMIM ‘snipe’ Congress votes for BJP, alleges Jairam Ramesh
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s comments came ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections, where both the AIMIM and the AAP have thrown their hats into the ring
The Congress on Tuesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of “sniping” the Congress’ votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in elections.
Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, Congress general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh took a jibe at AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi, alleging that his party’s job is to “snipe Congress’ votes” for the BJP and added that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also works on the same lines.
Ramesh’s comments came ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections, which are due in December this year, where both the AIMIM and the AAP have thrown their hats into the ring.
“He (Owaisi) is a good friend of mine and is also a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee that I chair. There’s no denying that he takes Oxygen from the BJP and his party gives back a booster dose to the BJP… We also see the AAP in the same way. The party is a product of the RSS-supported movement in 2012. There is no distinction between the AAP’s way of raising issues and the use of language and that of the BJP. There’s shadowboxing between the two parties,” Ramesh said.
“It is true that through the Punjab government and the Delhi government, a lot of advertisements are being made (in Gujarat), there is a bubble of the AAP created in the media. But on the ground level if you look in terms of workers and candidates, the fight in Gujarat is between the BJP and the Congress,” Ramesh claimed, terming the AAP as a “B-team of the BJP”.
There was no immediate reaction from the AAP or the AIMIM on Ramesh’s comments.
Ramesh on Tuesday also announced the subsidiary events of its Kanyakumar to Kashmir ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ for states that did not find a place in its route map, including West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand. The footmarch will begin from Kolkata on December 28, marking the foundation day of the party.
“Individual Yatras, including the one that started in Odisha yesterday, Assam today and the one in West Bengal that will begin around a month and a half later, will be conducted on a regular basis. State-level leaders along with national level leaders will also participate in the footmarch,” Ramesh said.
He further announced that all members and participants of the Bharat Jodo Yatra will gather at Charminar and hoist the national flag. It will mark the flagging off of the ‘Sadbhavna Yatra’ that took place from the monument under the leadership of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
(With PTI inputs)
