‘Lalu cleverest of all’: BJP's swipe at Oppn Bengaluru meet; says AAP ‘managed to box Congress’

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday termed the mega gathering of opposition parties in Bengaluru as a “coming together of irresponsible leaders”. Hitting out at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya said the AAP chief arrived for the meeting at a time when “Delhi is drowning” while the TMC supremo “is happily politicking away” when the state's the law and order situation is “precariously placed” in the aftermath of a bloody Panchayat election.

“As if that wasn’t enough, Congress is claiming that ‘change’ will come from Karnataka, RJD is claiming it will be Bihar,” Malviya wrote on Twitter claiming cracks in the opposition unity.

Pointing to Congress's decision to oppose the Centre's ordinance to control the administrative powers in the national capital despite protests from the party's Delhi and Punjab units, the BJP functionary said the AAP has “managed to box the beleaguered party in a corner.”

“Congress and CPI(M) workers are dying in Bengal, but they are supping up with Mamata Banerjee at the center. If the nucleus, read as Congress, is so weak, how can the coalition survive?” he further wrote.

Malviya said that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav has proved to be the “cleverest of them all”, highlighting his earlier remarks where the former Bihar CM said the prime minister should not be without a spouse.

“But Lalu Prasad is cleverest of them all. He has declared that Opposition leader, with a wife (call it spouse in the interest of gender neutrality), only qualifies to occupy PM residence. The loaded matrimonial caveat, effectively rules out Nitish Kumar, Rahul Gandhi and even Mamata Banerjee,” Malviya wrote.

Here's what Lalu Prasad Yadav said

At the joint press conference by opposition parties in Patna last month, Lalu Prasad Yadav advised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to get married soon. When reporters later asked Lalu whether his advice to Rahul Gandhi was in any way linked to the Congress leader being the prime ministerial candidate, the former Bihar chief minister said both are separate matters but added that “whoever becomes the PM should not be without a wife.”

“Staying at the PM residence without a wife is wrong. This should be done away with,” the RJD chief told reporters, in an apparent swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bengaluru opposition meet

With a call for unity, top leaders of 26 opposition parties began crucial deliberations on Monday to chalk out their joint programme aimed at defeating the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, who were seated next to each other, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers M K Stalin, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren and RJD chief Lalu Prasad were among those who attended the dinner meeting where discussions were held to finalise the agenda for the formal talks starting Tuesday morning.

The leaders sat in front of a huge banner with "United We Stand" slogan, which was also put on posters that dotted the streets of Bengaluru with pictures of opposition leaders.

(With PTI inputs)