BJP poster boy Khattar steps up attack on ‘corrupt’ Cong

Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 18

Zero tolerance to corruption and “sab ka saath, sab ka vikas” have emerged as key issues for the BJP in the run-up to the May 12 Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.

On the poll trail, the saffron party is targeting the Opposition, especially the Congress and the INLD, for “rampant nepotism and corruption” during their governance.

Buoyed by the recent wins in the five mayoral elections and Jind byelection, top functionaries of the BJP are again banking on twin issues of overall development across the state and zero tolerance to corruption to woo the voters for the Lok Sabha elections.

Party sources said the twin issues of unequal development and rampant corruption plagued Haryana during the Congress government (2005-2014) and the INLD rule before that and it was natural for the BJP to make them election issues.

“The BJP effected a systemic change by adopting zero tolerance to corruption and undertaking development equitably across the state. This would pay rich dividends in the May 12 parliamentary poll,” Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma told The Tribune.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who has emerged as the BJP’s poster boy for its slogan of zero tolerance to corruption, is leading the party campaign from the front and has become its star campaigner.

In Bhiwani, considered a stronghold of late Chief Minister Bansi Lal and his daughter-in-law and CLP leader Kiran Choudhry, Khattar today stepped up attack on the Congress. He alleged that certain Congress leaders had filled their houses with wealth accumulated through corrupt means, as had been exposed by various scams. “Several Congress leaders are on bail for their alleged acts of omission and commission,” he asserted.

As far as development of the state was considered the BJP government did not discriminate between constituencies represented by the ruling party MLAs and those represented by the opposition legislators, Khattar claimed, adding that due to such approach many opposition leaders were joining the BJP.