New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday alleged that after “vote chori”, the BJP is now engaged in “satta chori” by bringing Bills to “topple Opposition governments within 30 days” and “destabilise democracy” by using arrest as a weapon.
Kharge claimed that the Bills take away the right of citizens to form or remove their elected government and give that power to institutions like ED-CBI.
“It is like running a bulldozer on democracy,” the Congress chief said.
He made the comments in his opening statement at the meeting with newly-appointed presidents of the District Congress Committees (DCC) of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh at the Indira Bhawan here.
Kharge cautioned the DCC chiefs to take special care in forming booth and Mandal committees and ensure that the people on these panels are loyal to the party and do not waver from the ideology of the Congress.
“The district president forms the Block Committee under him. He forms Mandal and Booth Committees. When you form these committees, take special care that all these people are loyal to the party and hardworking. Most importantly, they should not waver from the ideology of the Congress,” Kharge said.
Even if someone tempts them, their loyalty should remain for the Congress, such people are needed, he stressed.
Kharge said the Congress ruled the country for a long time because of its strong organisation and it was necessary for the ministers to contact the district president first when they went to the district.
“The district oresident is the strongest link in the Congress organisation. If the government has to be elected in the state, he plays an important role in getting the candidate elected in the Legislative Assemblies. If the government has to be formed in the country, your support is needed to win the Lok Sabha,” he told the DCC chiefs of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
“In between, there was a slight change in this tradition. Ministers started making their favourite people the district president. Ability and ideology started being ignored. Rahul (Gandhi) ji and I realised that we cannot return to power strongly without strengthening our organisation, without giving importance to the district presidents,” he said.
Kharge pointed out that recently Rahul Gandhi had given a detailed presentation on how votes were ‘stolen’ in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura seat in a strategic way through a conspiracy.
“We came to know all this after six months of research,” he said.
“The Election Commission did not give any answer at first. Now the whole country is understanding this. The BJP government and ECI’s narrative on SIR in Bihar has got a setback from the Supreme Court,” he said.