Congress has seen big-ticket exits from its party. Before Ashok Chavan, Baba Siddique and Milind Deora left the Congress.
New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that he recently had a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the BJP’s practice of “poaching” leaders from opposition parties and expressed his concerns about BJP “scaring” opposition leaders into joining their party. This comes in light of former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan’s recent switch to the BJP, which Kharge labeled as an act of cowardice. Kharge made these remarks while inaugurating a two-day state-level training camp in Lonavala for Congress functionaries.
During a tea meeting in Parliament, Kharge directly asked Prime Minister Modi about the increasing number of ministers and ex-chief ministers joining the BJP. Kharge questioned the ruling party’s appetite for taking leaders from the opposition into their fold. In response, the Prime Minister claimed that people were willingly joining the BJP and cited the government’s work as the reason behind it.
“He (PM) said what could he do if people want to join the BJP. I told him they (BJP) are carrying out this work (poaching) by scaring people. He said these people want to join because of their (government’s) work,” the Congress chief added as per PTI.
Slamming turncoats, Kharge said party workers and voters made some persons “big leaders”, who then ran away, “which is nothing but an act of cowardice”. “But we do not have to get scared. If we are scared, we will perish, But if we fight, we will live and, one day, victory will be ours. I am sure you are all ready for this,” he told his party’s workers.
Congress has seen big-ticket exits in Maharashtra as former chief minister Ashok Chavan left the party and joined the BJP — with the party nominating him to the Rajya Sabha.
Before Ashok Chavan, Baba Siddique and Milind Deora left the Congress. They joined BJP’s allies in Maharashtra — Baba Siddique Ajit Pawar’s NCP and Milind Deora Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.