The war of words between the BJP and the Congress over the Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh has escalated. After the Congress accused the BJP of going soft on Naxals, the BJP hit back at the Congress saying that the internal disputes within the Congress might have led to the attack.
Senior BJP leaders even pointed their fingers at former state Chief Minister Ajit Jogi’s role in the whole episode that left 27 people, including senior state Congress leaders, dead.
Talking to reporters in Gwalior, senior BJP leader and party general secretary Ananth Kumar pointed fingers at Jogi. When asked about Jogi’s charge that intelligence failure and the BJP were responsible for the attack, he said Jogi was under suspicion in the matter.
“From the way sitting MLA Kawasi Lakhma came unscathed after the Naxal attack, from the way people of the country are raising questions especially in social media over where was Jogi at the time of the attack, the BJP thinks that Jogi is under suspicion in the whole matter,” agencies quoted Kumar as saying.
BJP MP and general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh J P Nadda on Thursday made an oblique reference to a person within the Congress behind the attack.
“There are talks about who was present and who was not in the parivartan rally; who came first who came late; and who survived and who got caught in the attack ...It is not appropriate for me to make a comment. These are all part of the terms of reference of the judicial probe.”
But another BJP leader Narendra Singh Tomar, who is Madhya Pradesh party unit’s president, was even more direct. He accused former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Ajit Jogi of being a part of the conspiracy behind the Naxal attack.