Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed his former party Congress on Saturday for electing Mallikarjun Kharge as its president, saying that if Shashi Tharoor had won the election, he would have said that democracy had arrived in the Congress, news agency PTI reported.
Talking about those who voted for Tharoor in the polls, Sarma said there are a lot of good-thinking people in Congress and they will come to the BJP soon.
“These 1,000 people who voted for Shashi Tharoor, I think they would be the ones joining the BJP in six months or one year,” he stated at an event in Delhi, reported by PTI.
Responding to Sarma’s claim, Tharoor said those who do not have the courage to fight might be tempted to do so.
“Those who show courage will never join the BJP, it is those who do not have the courage to fight who might be tempted to do so,” news agency ANI quoted Tharoor as saying.
#WATCH | Those who show courage will never join the BJP, it is those who do not have the courage to fight who might be tempted to do so: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to ANI pic.twitter.com/LUAYQ4TDRz
— ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2022
Mallikarjun Kharge was elected as the new Congress president on October 19. He succeed Sonia Gandhi as president of the once-dominant party that gained India’s freedom from British rule 75 years ago.
Rejecting the claim that the BJP does not have democratic internal elections, Sarma stated that any BJP president has to go through a democratic process and cannot be remotely controlled.
Sarma further stated that the BJP will grow to two to three states in 2024 and that this expansion will continue for the next two elections.
“By 2029, the BJP will be everywhere in the country,” he stated, PTI reported.
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Sarma stated that the BJP is dedicated to executing the Citizenship Amendment Act and that it is just a matter of time until its guidelines are drafted. The right of a Hindu to become a citizen of his or her country is a valid one, and the BJP wholeheartedly supports the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
“CAA is part of our commitment, it is part of our ideology. We will implement it. Somebody questioned ‘where is Ram Mandir, when it will come’, you have seen Ram Mandir now, somebody has questioned ‘when Article 370 will go’, it has gone. The same way you will see UCC (Uniform Civil Code) coming, the same way you will see CAA coming,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians. The CAA was approved by Parliament on December 11, 2019, and obtained presidential approval the next day. Subsequently, it was notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
(With Inputs From Agencies)