As the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) projected a picture of unity before staking claim to form the next government, the Congress on June 5 played on the previous fault lines between NDA allies and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to create a sense of unease.
The party said the 2024 Lok Sabha verdict is a “big mandate against” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and alleged that Mr. Modi was intent on “sabotaging” the people’s mandate.
Taking to social media platform X, Congress’ communication chief Jairam Ramesh pointed out the differences between Mr. Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the caste census, and special category status for Bihar.
Mr. Ramesh highlighted a news item that Mr. Kumar’s party, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), would be insisting on special category status for the State, and a caste census. “Will Mr. Narendra Modi stand by his statement that the caste census is an attempt to divide the nation in the name of caste?” he asked.
In a move that was aimed at driving a wedge between the NDA allies, Mr. Ramesh kept pointing out the differences that leaders, including Mr. Kumar and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu, had with the Prime Minister.
Mr. Ramesh shared a video clip of February 10, 2019 in which Mr. Modi targeted Mr. Naidu for misgovernance, and accused him of misusing government funds for his political programmes. “And today he [Mr. Modi] is begging for Mr. Naidu’s help to remain in office after the people have rejected him decisively,” he said.
The Congress also targeted Mr. Modi for not stepping down despite the BJP’s inability to secure a majority on its own under his leadership.
Mr. Ramesh said the “caretaker Prime Minister is thumping his shrunken chest and boasting that not since 1962 has a government been re-elected thrice consecutively”.
“History that even the Master Distortian cannot rewrite is that Nehru was elected PM in 1952 with 364 seats, in 1957 with 371 seats and in 1962 with 361 seats. Mr. Narendra Modi has got 240 seats in 2024. It is a big mandate AGAINST him. But he is intent on sabotaging this mandate,” he said in a post on X.
The Congress leader’s post was in response to the Prime Minister’s speech on Sunday at the BJP headquarters, in which Mr. Modi stated that no government since 1962 had won the mandate for a third consecutive term.
“In late November 1989, the Indian National Congress got 197 seats and was the single largest party. It could well have staked its claim to form the Government. But Mr. Rajiv Gandhi did what he believed to be the decent and morally right thing to do. Who can say that the caretaker PM has even an iota of decency and morality in him, even as the people of India have rejected him resoundingly?” Mr. Ramesh said in another post.
