People now understand your ploys: Pawan Khera to PM Modi
Congress leader says BJP vandalism at Patna's Sadaqat Ashram result of incident staged by BJP 'toolkit'
Taking aim at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader and head of the party's media and publicity department Pawan Khera on Friday accused the BJP of orchestrating a conspiracy to defame the Congress, and then playing the victim card.
Referring to the vandalism by BJP supporters at Bihar Congress headquarters Sadaquat Ashram in Patna, ostensibly in protest against an abusive remark about PM Modi allegedly made by an unidentified man at a Congress rally during the Bihar Voter Adhikar Yatra, Khera alleged that the BJP "plants agents" in Congress meetings to hurl abuse, only to later use the incident to blame the Congress.
“The BJP first sends its agents into our meetings to create a ruckus and use abusive language. Then they turn around and accuse us,” Khera said in a video statement to the press.
He further alleged that after these staged incidents, BJP supporters physically attack Congress workers and offices. “They send their goons to attack Sadaqat Ashram, injure our workers and smash their heads. It's a toolkit that has emerged over the past 11 years,” Khera added. “This is a conspiracy by the BJP to defame the Congress. They want to create controversy and distract the public from their attempts at vote chori (theft)'.”
He went on to claim that the Modi government has been “caught red-handed stealing votes” and is now panicking. “The Modi government has been caught red-handed in vote theft, which is why they are so rattled,” he said.
The BJP has yet to issue a response to these allegations. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has also not commented on the matter at the time of publishing.
Khera also predicted the standard operating procedure of the BJP and stated what was expected of the party as its next move: "I can assure you that now, PM Modi will go around shedding tears saying that the Congress abuses me. Fortunately, people have understood these shenanigans now and such cheap tactics are now redundant."
As political tensions rise ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, the Opposition INDIA bloc's Voter Adhikar Yatra, launched to protest the ECI's controversial and widely criticised Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state's electoral rolls, has been drawing massive crowds, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's 'vote chor gaddi chhor (step down, vote thief)' slogan becoming an INDIA bloc rallying cry.
The SIR has already seen roughly 65 lakh voters being struck off the rolls as per the ECI's own data, with Opposition parties alleging that the exercise has been undertaken at the BJP's behest, to disenfranchise marginalised and Muslim voters who have traditionally not voted for the BJP.