NEW DELHI: As election fever grips the country, the Opposition is looking at a possible realignment.
However, JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s plan of forming an anti-BJP front, has been ridiculed by the ruling BJP, which is approaching its second year in power. The saffron party said those talking of forming a front against it were thirsting for power, while PM Narendra Modi was busy delivering. The party made it clear that it was unfazed by efforts to form a united front to against it and said such attempts to stop the Modi government “from working for the development and for the poor will not succeed”.
Hitting back at Nitish call for a ‘Sangh-mukt’ (Sangh-free) country to save democracy, the BJP said critics of the RSS should at least attend its ‘shakha’ for a day to clear their misconceptions.
Addressing an event in Patna, Nitish Kumar had on Saturday mounted a counter-offensive against Modi’s Congress-mukt Bharat’ slogan, by coining a new one.
The ruling party countered Nitish’s salvo on the RSS saying, “Nitish Kumar has called for an RSS-free India, but you were in alliance with the BJP. You have called for a Sangh-free India. It is better you learn and understand the Sangh and for that you must visit a Shakha,” BJP secretary and spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said.
He added that “from Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi, and from Rajiv Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi, all had opposed the RSS, but the organisation has only grown”.
Sharma said everyone was aware of the JD(U) leader’s national ambitions. Taking a dig at the Congress, Sharma asked party president Sonia Gandhi to make it clear if Rahul Gandhi would lead the front or just be a part of it.
The BJP leader claimed that the Opposition’s aim was “to stop the government from helping the poor”.
RSS ideologue M G Vaidya said efforts to attack the Sangh would only backfire. “They can’t defeat the BJP on their own. May be they will gain a bit by coming together. As far as the Sangh is concerned... when there are increased protests against the Sangh, it grows,” he said.