Picking on Sonia Gandhi's televised appeal to voters, BJP today said it is a "farewell speech" of an exhausted Congress and reflects her realisation that her son Rahul Gandhi has not clicked on the election front and she needs to take charge.
"All of a sudden Sonia Gandhi has come to the fore to take charge of the (election) campaign. She had thought that her son would do something. But when nothing happened. What could she do? The mother herself had to come to the fore, appear on TV to deliver advertised messages to the nation," Narendra Modi said addressing a rally in Bhagalpur.
BJP Spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "Sonia Gandhi's appeal on television yesterday was a farewell speech of an exhausted Congress. It was clear display of an effort to create a fear psychosis amongst the voters about the BJP and Sh Modi. It also connotes a shift of campaign leadership from Rahul Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi and a tacit admission that Rahul has not clicked."
He said, "It was full of hypocrisy. She talked about giving power to the people but has deprived the PM of his powers, which stands exposed by two recent books written by the former aides of the PM, Manmohan Singh."
Taking potshots at the Congress, the principal opposition party said it is display of an effort to create a fear psychosis amongst voters about BJP and Narendra Modi.
BJP also hit out at the ruling party using revelations made in the two recent books by the PM's aides that the Prime Minister did not enjoy his powers and said Sonia's speech is "full of hypocricy".
Attacking the Congress President for accusing BJP of being divisive and communal, Javadekar said, the track record shows that the Congress is the "most communal and divisive party".
Modi also hit out at Sonia saying, "You must have seen this paid news. They have lots of money, they can buy TV (channels), they can buy time on TV and tell what they want to say."
Sonia Gandhi had last night appealed to people to defeat "divisive and autocratic" forces which will "destroy" the Indian ethos.
Modi said when Gandhi says her party respects democratic traditions, it is something that cannot be easily digested.
"In 2004, when your (Congress) government was formed, what was your first action? Without following any democratic practice or without consulting any Chief Minister, you removed governors. Is this a sample of you honouring democratic traditions?"
The Gujarat Chief Minister also accused the Congress of creating tensions between IB and CBI for its political objectives.