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‘Parasitic Congress’: PM Modi's sharp attack as Rahul Gandhi attends Vijay's swearing-in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi berated the Congress for breaking up with longtime ally DMK in Tamil Nadu, and alleged that the party turns on its own partners.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the Congress during a public meeting in Bengaluru, accusing the opposition party of "betraying" allies and people alike, and describing it as a "parasitic political force" that survives at the expense of regional parties.
This comes after the Congress joined hands with actor-turned-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to form a coalition government in Tamil Nadu, despite contesting the polls with the DMK, which lost power.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was in Chennai for Vijay's swearing-in on Sunday.
Modi, while addressing BJP workers and supporters during his visit to Karnataka for the 45th anniversary celebrations of the Art of Living Foundation, said the Congress had lost public trust across the country due to what he termed "fake guarantees", poor governance and internal power struggles.
“No Congress state government has returned to power a second time,” he said, speaking apparently of recent years.
"Within a few months of forming the government, anti-incumbency begins to build against the Congress. This is because Congress only knows how to betray. They themselves are liars, and their guarantees are fake as well. In the book of Congress's power, the chapter on governance does not exist at all," PM Modi alleged.
He berated the Congress for breaking up with longtime ally DMK in Tamil Nadu, and alleged that the party turns on its own partners whenever political equations changed.
"The parasitic Congress now needs another party on whose back it can ride to remain relevant," he said.
Also Read | PM Modi says Congress betrayed DMK, targets party’s power struggle in K’taka
Congress’s Vijay bid
TVK's C Joseph Vijay was sworn in as the Tamil Nadu CM on Sunday in a colourful ceremony attended by Rahul Gandhi, ushering in the first non-DMK, non-AIADMK government in the southern state in 60 years, with a promise of transparent governance and an assertion that he will be the sole power centre in the state.
In his maiden address at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium after taking oath, Vijay said a new era of a regime committed to "real secularism and social justice" had commenced. He has in the past termed the BJP his “ideological enemy”, and the Congress and some of his other now-allies have pointedly called Modi's party a “communal force”.
Vijay's cabinet so far is a mix of the young and the experienced, with the 51-year-old actor-turned-politician's core team finding a place in his maiden ministry. Soon after taking over, CM Vijay signed three files to implement poll-time promises, including 200 units of free power to domestic consumers.
In his address, Vijay said he was not from any “royal lineage” and that people welcomed and accepted him.
