MP election: Congress accuses BJP of creating trouble at party meetings

Congress state in-charge Deepak Babaria has denied having been assaulted during a party meeting in Rewa, but admitted to the ruckus having taken place.

Congress’ Madhya Pradesh in-charge Deepak Babaria on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of sending its workers to his party’s meetings to create disturbances. He claimed the BJP was doing so to malign Congress leaders and to win elections in the state due later this year.

File photo of Nida Khan and her brother.

“…in Rewa, some of those who created a ruckus were known to be close to a local BJP leader, who is a minister in (chief minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet. This will not help as the tide is against the BJP,” Babaria said, referring to the ruckus created at a Congress meeting in Rewa on July 29.

Six Congress workers were suspended after Babaria was reportedly assaulted in Rewa. Babaria denied having been hit, but admitted to the ruckus having taken place.

Babaria was forced to leave an event in Vidisha on August 6 when two rival groups clashed after a leader of one of them was not given a seat on the dais. Babaria had also earlier faced protests from some party workers in Anuppur.

He clarified he had spoken in the context of discipline and not the RSS’s “communal agenda”. “We are willing to learn from even our opponents if they have some good virtues but it does not mean that we have given a certificate to the BJP or RSS on its divisive and communal agenda.”

State BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal called Babaria’s views about RSS’s discipline “absolutely correct” and said the indiscipline was the Congress’s “true culture”.

“Instead of blaming the BJP for the clash, attack and disturbances during the Congress meetings, he should admit it as a reality. Also, he should be more concerned about his fate in the Congress after his praise for the RSS. His party may subject him to intellectual mob lynching.”

The Congress had earlier called it an attempt to project the party in poor light after Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh offered security to Babaria.