Panaji: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to create an image of 'Hindu hriday samrat' (king of Hindu hearts) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP also claimed there was a decline in the voting percentage in certain areas in the first two phases of the Lok Sabha polls and it reflected the "indifference being felt by the traditional BJP supporter".
Addressing a press conference, he said Modi, in 2014, came up with a very persuasive agenda of anti-corruption, replication of his Gujarat development model, which collapsed by the first term itself.
"In 2019, they fought the general polls on Pulwama, Balakot (terror incidents and surgical strikes in response). That was his message. Now, after 2019 he can't say that because I have said he has been a failure in the Chinese border area," Tharoor claimed.
"In 2024, the only message is that the PM is Hindu hriday samrat and is indulging in scare mongering about Muslims. What kind of talk is this? It is embarrassing when the PM of the country talks like this," Tharoor claimed.
Such a message may move the hardcore Hindutva voter, who is already part of the BJP camp, but not the neutral voter, the senior Congress leader asserted.
"We believe the decline of votes in certain areas is a reflection of the indifference being felt by the traditional BJP supporter," he added.
Published 03 May 2024, 16:01 IST