Empty out the Congress, Chandrashekhar Bawankule tells partymen

MUMBAI: After the influx engineered by the BJP from other parties over the last few years, the party’s state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Sunday told his workers to “empty out the Congress” by engineering a split in it. After a clip of his speech went viral, Congress leaders reacted sharply, saying that the ruling party needed Congress leaders, as their leaders were incapable of winning elections.

Bawankule, while addressing party leaders and workers in Pune, tried to reassure them that they would not suffer when leaders from other parties joined, as “loyalists” would get preference in election tickets. Congress leader and former Bhor MLA Sangram Thopate recently joined the BJP, leading to unrest within the local party unit. Local leaders had opposed the induction.

“There is nothing left in the Congress, nobody is heading to Sharad Pawar’s party and everybody has forgotten Uddhav Thackeray. If they are not able to handle their parties, what can we do?” said Bawankule.

The Congress’ Maharashtra unit chief Harshvardhan Sakpal counter-attacked the BJP. “The ruling party is a witch that swallows Congress leaders and workers, as it knows that it needs them to win the elections despite having prime minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis,” he said. “This is the reason they are conspiring to split the Congress.”

Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad said that emptying out the Congress was not as easy as playing in a casino in Macau. “The Congress is an ideology,” she said. “The BJP had dreamed of making India Congress-free but it was reduced to 240 seats in the Lok Sabha elections after its tall claim of winning 400-plus seats. Power has gone to Bawankule’s head.”

Reacting on Monday to the counter-attack by the Congress, Bawankule said, “Party loyalists like Sangram Thopate are joining us on their own, as they have lost faith in the Congress leadership. They have realised that Rahul Gandhi cannot do anything for the party and cannot lead the country to development. There is no need for us to empty out the Congress; its members are coming to us on their own.”