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BJP prepares return fire with Rahul Gandhi as target

Strategy is to ‘expose Rahul as anti-progress’, bring up Lalit Modi’s Congress connections, drag in Congress CMs under corruption cloud.

The BJP spent the day working out a counterattacking strategy to deal with an aggressive opposition in the monsoon session starting Tuesday, set to be the stormiest since the party returned to power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Ministers of State Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajeev Pratap Rudy arrive for the All Party Meeting at Parliament House in New Delhi on Monday. (Source: PTI) - See more at:

The BJP has decided to take the battle to the opposition camp by sharpening its attack on Rahul Gandhi and his family, party sources said. They added party chief Amit Shah has taken direct control of the offensive inside and outside Parliament so that there is no lack of coordination.
The BJP held a string of meetings Monday, including an all-party meeting called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan convened a meeting of leaders, and the BJP’s parliamentary party executive committee met in the evening at the residence of the Prime Minister, who later met BJP allies.

The BJP has briefed its spokespersons and senior leaders that they should highlight Rahul’s “anti-development” approach. “Rahul had talked about jobs for youth, improvement of the manufacturing sector, and assistance to women and senior citizens during his election speeches,” a BJP leader said. “But when the Narendra Modi government started schemes for these sections, Rahul is blocking them. He cannot digest the fact that the BJP government is delivering and it’s not a farce like his grandmother’s slogan ‘Gharibi hatao’. We will expose this side of him to the country.”

To counter the Opposition’s attack on BJP leaders for their links with Lalit Modi, BJP speakers in the House plan to highlight Lalit’s references to Priyanka Vadra, Robert Vadra and Sonia Gandhi’s sister. To counter the attack on Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Vyapam scam, they plan to highlight the court rejection of the Congress allegation against Chouhan. If the Congress insists on raising Vyapam, which the government maintains is a state issue, BJP MPs will press for the discussion to include allegations against the Congress chief ministers in Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.

The BJP will offer to put the Congress’s issues up for discussion. If the Congress insists on the resignation of Union minister Sushma Swaraj and CMs Vasundhara Raje and Chouhan as a condition to let the House function, the BJP plans to use this “obstructionist strategy” to target the opposition in the Bihar election campaign.

BJP leaders are hopeful the Congress will be isolated in its demand for the resignations. “At the all-party meeting, the Congress was the only party that threatened disruption if its demands are not met,” said a BJP leader.

At the meeting, Venkaiah Naidu said the government has no problem discussing any issue and added Sushma is keen to make a statement on allegations made against her regarding Lalit.

The party, meanwhile, has already begun its offensive. Spokesperson M J Akbar sought to drag the Gandhi family into the Goa contract bribery scandal during the previous Congress regime. The alleged bribery of $976,630 for a Goa project by US firm Louis Berger included payment purportedly to a minister. The party has sought a CBI probe.

Akbar questioned if the “first family of the Congress” has “shared” the loot. “Since this is Congress, we would like to know how much of this loot was shared upwards to the ruling family in Delhi,” he told reporters at a briefing in Delhi.

Akbar mocked Rahul for his assertion that he would not allow an inch of land to be acquired under the land law proposed by the government, Akbar said Rahul must have meant thousands of bighas of land “stolen” by his brother-in-law Vadra or the land his sister Priyanka owns in Himachal Pradesh.