Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday took a swipe after Nitin Nabin formally took charge as the BJP’s new national president without a leadership contest and also took a dig at Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, whom the largest opposition party has been attacking, alleging irregularities in elections.“Where is the election? Why do you even call it an election? You announce the president first and then say there will be an election, and then there is no election,” Pawan Khera, head of the Congress’ media and publicity department, said at a press conference.Attacking the CEC, Khera added with a quip, “Gyanesh Kumar wants to resign in protest; he has no role, he can’t even influence, he can’t even manipulate anything.”Commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark that Nitin Nabin is his “boss” in party matters, Khera remarked, “They can keep playing games among themselves. Sometimes Mohan Bhagwat becomes someone’s boss, sometimes Modi becomes someone’s boss. We don’t care about the tears of seers and are playing boss-boss.”“Is Bigg Boss game being played here? What is this? The biggest boss of Hindu dharma is shedding tears and they are busy playing Bigg Boss,” he added.Khera’s comments referred to the controversy over authorities allegedly preventing Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati from taking a holy dip in the Ganga at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. Mohan Bhagwat is the head of the RSS, the ideological parent of the ruling BJP.Another Congress leader, Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore, pointed out that the grand old party conducted a leadership contest between Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor in 2022, in which Kharge won and succeeded Sonia Gandhi as the Congress’ national president.“We hold elections in the Congress. Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor were candidates, and voting took place. This is called democracy. PM Modi and [Union Home Minister] Amit Shah want to take over the role of all the workers… BJP is an authoritative party and moving towards dictatorship… Even the RSS is stunned to see this,” Tagore said.Congress ally Rashtriya Janata Dal also criticised the BJP, with RJD MP Manoj Jha saying, “Don’t call it an election… an election is only called when there are two or more choices. Nevertheless, he has become the national president, and I extend my best wishes to him.”Nitin Nabin, born in the same year as the saffron party (1980), is the youngest and 12th president of the saffron party. Hailing from Bihar, he was appointed the national working president in December last year, signaling his eventual elevation to the top post.He succeeds Union health minister JP Nadda, who had been the BJP chief since January 2020, following Amit Shah.(With ANI inputs)
