Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | NDA is now 'Nitish-Naidu Dependent Alliance': Pawan Khera

New Delhi: The Congress took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he did not refer to NDA as many times in the last 10 years as he did in his hour-long speech at the National Democratic Alliance meeting on Friday.

The Congress also described the NDA as 'Nitish-Naidu Dependent Alliance'.

Congress leader Pawan Khera said the Modi government owes an explanation to the people over the 'removal' of statues of the national icons in the Parliament complex.

Statues of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji among others have been relocated within Parliament premises as part of a landscaping exercise, a move that has been sharply criticised by the Congress which alleged that those have been moved from their places of prominence in front of Parliament House.

Khera claimed the government has 'removed' statues of national icons out of 'frustration' and in a bid to vent out the anger over the BJP not having won a majority on its own.

He said the statues were 'removed' without the decision of the joint parliamentary committee on the maintenance of heritage characters and development of the Parliament House complex and the committee on the installation of portraits and statues of national leaders and Parliamentarians in the Parliament complex.

He said the last meeting of these committees on portraits and statues was held on December 18, 2018.

"In such a situation, the country demands an explanation on why the statues of national leaders were removed and what is the intention behind it," the Congress leader said.

"The BJP is taking revenge for its defeat in Maharashtra by Shifting the Shivaji statue out of Parliament. They are abusing Lord Ram's devotees in Ayodhya because they couldn't win any seat around the Ram Temple. NDA's full form now in Naidu-Nitish Dependent alliance," he said.

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) pocketed 31 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra while the BJP-led NDA fell significantly short of its target of bagging 45-plus seats in the state, garnering just 17 seats.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that Prime Minister Modi's embrace of the Constitution was a 'drama' as he has attacked the same Constitution several times in the past 10 years.

As soon as Modi entered the Central Hall for the NDA meeting, he bowed before a copy of the Constitution placed there and lifted it to his forehead reverentially.

Modi was unanimously elected the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentary party on Friday, after which the NDA staked claim on government formation and he was appointed as Prime Minister-designate by President Droupadi Murmu.

During his speech at the NDA meeting on Friday, Modi said would strive to ensure unanimity in running the next government and asserted that the NDA is not a combine of some parties to get power but an organic alliance committed to the principle of 'nation first'.

Ramesh said Modi bowed to the same Constitution that 'he has continuously ignored for 10 years and for which the RSS-BJP had sought 400 seats to execute their decades-long conspiracy to dismantle it'.

Pawan Khera said, "Narendra Modi took the name of NDA more times in his one-and-half-hour speech than he ever did in the last 10 years."

"His speech was so awkward that he was unable to get rid of his embarrassment... Earlier, he used to claim that he alone is the strongest and talked of Modi's guarantee. Now there is talk of NDA's guarantee.

"But both the people (Nitish and Chandrababu Naidu) know that no one trusts the guarantee of this person, not even them," Khera said.

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