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Kharge's ‘jail’ warning in J&K speech prompts ‘Emergency’ barb from BJP
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge slammed BJP, saying that if their party had won 20 more seats then things would have been different.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday hit back at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge for asserting that all BJP leaders would have been in jail if the opposition INDIA bloc was voted to power.
Addressing a public meeting in Jammu and Kashmir, Kharge hailed the INDIA bloc's performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said if Congress had won 20 more seats, then things would have been different.
“They (BJP) used to say 400 paar, 400 paar, where are your 400 seats? They stopped at 240 this time. If we had 20 more seats, then all these people would have been in jail, and they deserve to be there,” Kharge said.
“So I appeal to everyone to not get angry, but instead fight. Your captain is strong and unafraid, everyone here is unafraid. The leaders are here to help solve any problem in Jammu and Kashmir. We need to win, we need to fight together, but while fighting, we should not blame each other,” the Congress chief added.
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Hitting back at Kharge, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged his comments were a reminder of Congress' dictatorial mindset, and said the grand old party was the one that imposed an Emergency in the country years ago.
In an X post, Poonawalla said, “This is a reminder of Congress' Emergency mindset. He wants to put leaders in opposition in jail, Indira Gandhi put people in jail and Congress wants to continue this legacy. They do not say anything when the Trinamool Congress behaves dictatorially in Bengal and yet call other parties dictatorial.”
Addressing the meeting in J&K, Kharge appealed to the public to not trust the BJP over their promise of jobs and development, and instead strengthen the Congress-NC alliance by giving them votes.
“This is all a jumla, they said that before also, but did they give the jobs? They promised to give 2 crore jobs, it has been 10 years, ones who couldn't even give 1 lakh jobs to the people here, those people will give 5 lakh jobs just like that? Do not trust the people who tell these lies,” he said.
(With inputs from ANI)
