Hitting back at senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee for accusing it of supporting Anna Hazare and Ramdev, BJP on Sunday asked the Union minister not to shift anger on the main opposition and the RSS.
“He (Pranab) must be angry because of the stabbing he received from his own party for going to the airport. But don’t shift the anger on BJP and RSS,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said here.
He said the Finance Minister “should take some action (against corruption), but he will never do it because he very well knows his own people would be troubled.”
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On Mr. Mukherjee’s remark that the BJP was supporting social activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev to gain support after its debacle in the recent Assembly polls in five states, he said BJP was ruling over 36 per cent of the country’s area.
“BJP rules in 36 per cent of the country, and Congress only in 31 per cent. We rule in nine states,” Mr. Prasad said, reacting to Mr. Mukherjee’s statement in Kolkata earlier in the day that BJP could win only five seats in the recent Assembly polls.
Out of the total 824 Assembly seats in four states and a Union Territory which went to polls, the BJP had contested 411 and won only 5, whereas the Congress contested 354 and won 171. The allies of the Congress won 243 seats.
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Taking a pot shot at the senior Congress leader, Mr. Prasad said, “How Congress lost in Bihar is well known. In West Bengal its Mamata’s victory not Pranab Babu’s victory.
“Pranab Babu, don’t speak a language of desperation. Given that you are a seasoned politician, understand the mood of anger and distress among people on the issue of corruption.”