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On Congress presidential polls, BJP jabs Tharoor, Gehlot: 'Seeking owner's manzoori'
BJP's national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Congress veteran Shashi Tharoor meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi amid buzz of them contesting in Congress presidential elections shows it's a “family firm or a private limited company”.
The BJP on Wednesday said Congress leaders were taking permission from the owner of the family-run firm even before entering the election fray for the party president’s post. “In which election does the candidate meet and seek 'manzoori' (permission) from the family to contest an election?” BJP's national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said on recent reports of Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Ashok Gehlot meeting party’s interim boss Sonia Gandhi to discuss their possible candidature in the polls.
Poonawalla said the meetings prove the Congress is not a party but a “family firm or a private limited company”. He further said what is happening in the grand old party is not an election, but a selection and a “Mughal-style coronation”, news agency ANI reported.
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Referring to a remark by former Union minister and Congress veteran P Chidambaram, Poonawalla said he has already “let the cat out of the bag” by saying the Gandhis have a “pre-eminent” position in the party.
“Actually, Gandhis have permanent positions. Whoever be the proxy, dummy or nominal president - remote will be with Rahul (Gandhi) like Dr Manmohan Singh's remote was with Sonia Ji,” the BJP spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Poonawalla also cited the demands by the Congress' state units for the return of Rahul Gandhi as the president of the party, stating that it indicated the primary opposition at Centre lacks democracy, merit, accountability or performance and relied solely on one family.
“The Congress is ‘democracy-mukt’, ‘merit-mukt’, ‘accountability-mukt’, ‘performance-mukt’ and only ‘parivar yukt’,” Poonawalla added.
Tharoor, who earlier this month refused to rule himself out of the race to become the next Congress president, met Sonia Gandhi on Monday. On the same day, he also tweeted a petition by younger members of the party seeking ‘constructive reforms’ within Congress, writing it had got more than 650 signatures already.
Meanwhile, Gehlot reached Delhi on Wednesday morning and met Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath. The Rajasthan CM created a buzz about being a frontrunner in the race after he held a late-night meeting with MLAs in Jaipur on Tuesday. Gehlot said that he will file his nomination papers if the Congress wants him to do so, but as one last-ditch effort will try to convince Rahul Gandhi to take up the post of party president again.
(With agency inputs)
