Haryana: BJP sharpens attack on Congress

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, June 25

With an eye on the upcoming elections to the state Assembly, the ruling BJP has sharpened attacks on the Congress, the main opposition party in Haryana, and started wooing the state residents.

Addressing party workers at a felicitation ceremony organised at the state BJP headquarters in Rohtak on Sunday, party’s state election incharge Dharmendra Pradhan and co-incharge Biplab Kumar Deb launched a frontal attack on the Congress.

While Pradhan accused the Congress of indulging in falsehood to mislead the people, Deb targeted Haryana Congress stalwart and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son and Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, remarking that ‘baap-beta ki sarkaar’ would not be formed in the state.

Meanwhile, BJP state general secretary Surender Poonia has stated that the Congress regime had put 1.40 lakh people in jails during the Emergency imposed by late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. Addressing the gathering at an event organised to observe the anniversary of the Emergency here today, Poonia said the Congress regimes at the Centre had amended the Constitution 75 times and dismissed elected governments in different states 90 times through Article 356.

He pointed out that Article 356 was not used even once during the tenures of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Bring the truth of the Congress before the people by exposing its dark history,” Poonia exhorted the party workers.

Apart from attacking the Congress, the ruling BJP is also wooing the people by doling out sops like free residential plots to BPL and Antyodaya families, free travel facility in Haryana Roadways buses and promising a large-scale recruitment drive before the Assembly elections.

Taking a cue from the outcome of the recent Lok Sabha elections, in which the number of Lok Sabha seats won by the party was reduced to half and its vote share recorded a substantial drop, the BJP leadership has asked the party workers to placate the farming community (Jats) and Dalits, especially in the Assembly segments of the rural belt.

Meanwhile, the top national leaders of the ruling party have also focused their attention on Haryana which is slated to go to the polls in the coming months.