'Cong 'banking on lies', might win election in Pak'

BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav on Sunday said the Congress might win an election in Pakistan if it contests from there as the opposition party is "banking on lies" and the neighbouring country.

Addressing a press conference here, Madhav also claimed that the statements of the Congress leaders are retweeted more by the people of Pakistan than their counterparts in India.

"Their comments are more retweeted and publicised by the people of the neighbouring country than our own. The Congress might win an election in Pakistan if it contests from there. This is the condition of our main opposition party," the BJP leader said.

"The Congress does not have any issue to really take on our government, our leader and our party. It is banking on lies and Pakistan," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

Pointing out that the Congress is fighting a "clueless battle", Madhav said, "Nobody in the country is understanding what it wants to say and in which direction it wants to take the country. The people are also not understanding if the Congress is fighting for India or Pakistan."

Alleging that the Congress leaders are "doubting" the credentials of the Indian Army, the senior BJP leader said the opposition party was not only questioning the success of the BJP-led government but also making "derogatory remarks" about the Army.

When asked about the allegation of former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 1,800 crore to top BJP leaders, Madhav said, "It is bogus news...the Congress has no issue today to confront us and it is only banking on lies."

Madhav claimed that the allegation was based on a handwritten slip recovered from the house of a Congress leader which claimed that the Karnataka BJP leader had distributed the money.

"And when was it distributed? In 2011. Was Congress party sleeping then when they were in government? The slip was accessed from the house of a Congress leader," he added.

Ram Madhav brushed aside the possibility of the allegations of corruption levelled by the Congress and other opposition parties in the Rafale fighter jet deal, impacting the outcome of the upcoming polls.

"On the contrary, some good cartoons are being made on the Congress. All these negative campaigns of the Congress are useful for making good memes and cartoons in social media. Other than that, there is no impact on the public," he added.

The senior BJP leader claimed that a bigger "Modi wave" is prevailing in the entire country this time, in comparison to 2014.

"Conventional political wisdom says that a ruling party cannot create a wave. A wave is always created by the opposition. But Modi has broken convention many times. The situation is such that a Modi wave has been formed when he himself is in power," he said.

Sounding confident that the BJP "alone" will get more seats than what it won in 2014, Madhav expressed hope that NDA alliance partners, mainly the Shiv Sena, the JD(U), partners in the Northeast, UP and the south, comprising almost 30 parties, would get a good number of seats.

"We will slowly move towards two-third majority this time," he added.

Taking a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Madhav said they were hearing only Modi slogans wherever they were going.

"We are taking Modi's leadership and the report card of his five-year tenure to the people.

"The people are very clear about the poll result, though it will be announced on May 23, that NDA under Narendra Modi is coming back to power again," he added.