The Congress on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop “trolling and sermonising” and focus on inflation, unemployment and the lack of private investment, while challenging him to hold all future elections through ballot papers after the BJP’s defeat in Varanasi and Nagpur.
Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said Modi should reflect on the BJP’s losses in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi and the RSS stronghold of Nagpur before commenting on the Congress’ performance in the MLC elections. “The Prime Minister needs to introspect, but instead, he’s lecturing others,” Jairam said, asking Modi to explain the BJP’s defeat before counting the Congress’ seats.
“Stop trolling. Crores of families are reeling from back-breaking inflation, the youth are unemployed, and private investment has ground to a halt,” he said, urging the Prime Minister to address these concerns.
Jairam said the results in Varanasi, Nagpur, Lucknow, Prayagraj and Patna amounted to a “no-confidence motion” against the government’s policies. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also mocked the BJP over the results, pointing out that Varanasi was Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, Patna was associated with BJP president Nitin Nabin, and Nagpur was a stronghold of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the RSS.
“The BJP lost everything when elections happened by ballot. All strongholds were destroyed. All heroism fizzled out,” Shrinate said.
Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, she said, “And Modi ji’s team is sparing no effort in humiliating him. They were playing big tweet-tweet games.” Shrinate challenged Modi to agree to ballot paper voting in all elections, saying, “Come on, here’s the challenge — get all elections done on ballot paper. We’ll be done for, just like they were done for in their strongholds right now.” Congress media and publicity department head and Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Khera also referred to the BJP’s defeat in Varanasi and Nagpur.
“And then Modi saheb lost the MLC from his own Lok Sabha constituency. What’s more, the BJP lost in Nagpur too. Guess who won in Nagpur,” Khera said. The Congress had challenged Modi’s remarks on Wednesday, saying that if he believed EVMs had no bearing on election results, he should agree to conduct all future Lok Sabha and Assembly elections through ballot papers.
