First keep your flock together, then talk of Bharat Jodo: Nadda to Congress

Making an unsparing attack on the Congress that has seen an exit of many senior leaders in recent times, BJP chief mocked the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra, telling it to first keep its flock together

Making an unsparing attack on the Congress that has seen an exit of many senior leaders in recent times, BJP chief J P Nadda on Friday mocked the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra, telling it to first keep its flock together.

Taking a dig at the Congress during a rally in Haryana's Kaithal, he also accused it of being a family-centric party.

"The Congress is now neither a party of ideology nor a national party, nor even a regional party. It has been reduced to a brother-sister party," Nadda said apparently referring to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi.

Referring to senior Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad's exit from the party, he said the people who spent 50 years for it and gave their blood and sweat are deserting it.

"Did you ever think why are they leaving," the BJP chief asked, adding that senior leaders are quitting with a message that the party first needs to keep its flock together.

"Now, they are talking of Bharat Jodo, Bharat Jodo, 'arrey pehle party toh jod lo' (unite the party first)," he added.

A similar suggestion was given by Azad to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in his resignation letter, saying before starting the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the leadership should have undertaken a "Congress jodo" exercise across the country.

Nadda then said the BJP and the governments led by it are working to take the country and states ahead and bringing a change in the lives of people, including weaker sections and women.

Mentioning several parties, Nadda said the BJP is pitted against family-centric outfits, which only care about themselves and their families while the BJP and the governments led by it think about the nation and the country's people.

"Whose party has Shiv Sena remained now, a family party. The real Shiv Sena has left them," he said.

He said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to bring about a change in people's lives, the family-centric parties are working to save themselves and their children. "We are for the country, they are for themselves," he said.

"And also understand another thing, those who are fighting against corruption, they themselves are on bail. What will they fight," he said without taking any names.

The Congress will commence next week its Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. The yatra will cover 3,750 km over a period of 150 days.