‘We Don't Play Dirty Like the Congress’: BJP Hits Back at Rahul Gandhi's 'BJP Breaks Parties' Claim

New Delhi: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday sharply rebutted Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the Election Commission’s interim order on the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), accusing the Congress of being the real party that destroys others.

Reacting to Gandhi’s claims that the BJP and Election Commission were jointly splitting opposition parties, Rijiju said, “What Rahul Gandhi and Congress should be saying for themselves is what they are saying for the BJP. Congress party is the ‘Bhasmasur’ which burns to ashes every party that comes into contact with them…"

"TMC had emerged out of the Congress party. NCP had emerged out of the Congress party. Congress is accusing us but they themselves had broken out of another party. So, it is the Congress that breaks and burns other parties… Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, BJP has emerged as the world’s largest party but that didn’t happen by breaking any other party. We do not play dirty like the Congress,” he added.

BJP National Spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi echoed the counter-attack, stating that Gandhi’s remarks showed he “knows nothing about his own party.”

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Trivedi said, “People have a perception about Rahul Gandhi that he knows nothing about the country… Today, he has posted a remarkable tweet which suggests that he knows nothing about his own party either. He has accused the BJP of finishing TMC after Shiv Sena and NCP. I want to tell him that these parties (TMC, NCP) were formed by breaking away from Congress themselves…”

Rahul Gandhi had earlier criticised the Election Commission’s interim order freezing the name and “Flowers and Grass” symbol of the AITC for the upcoming West Bengal bypolls. He alleged a pattern of “party theft,” stating, “First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern -- BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away. When an entire party can be stolen, it’s hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too. Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft -- these have become symbols of our democratic decline.”

The Election Commission issued the interim order amid a dispute between rival TMC factions. It barred both groups from using the party’s name and reserved symbol, directing them to submit alternative names and symbols pending a final decision under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

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