Chandigarh, Sep 23 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Monday took a dig at the BJP, saying it was surprising that no one in the ruling party wants to put up posters of former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar during campaigning for Haryana polls.
"Khattar's posters are not seen anywhere. It is surprising. He has been chief minister for nine-and-a-half years. What has happened?. No one wants to put up his picture, what has happened. Is Khattar no one's leader (in the BJP)," Khera asked.
Khera's counteroffensive comes amid the BJP's overtures to Congress leader Kumari Selja to join its ranks amid reports that the Sirsa MP was not happy over ticket distribution for the Haryana assembly polls.
Union minister and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had recently invited Selja to join the saffron party, amid reports that she was staying away from the campaign.
Asked to comment on Khattar recently inviting Selja to join the BJP, Khera quipped, "Who is offering, what is the situation in their home (party)".
"...The one who is making the offer, when he was removed from the post, what all messages he sent and where he sent? Some day it will be disclosed. And one of our senior leaders will make this disclosure. I don't have permission to speak more (on this)," Khera told reporters here.
Selja on Monday dismissed talks of a possible switch to the BJP, accusing the ruling party of diverting attention from its "failures" in Haryana. "I am a Congressperson, I will remain a Congressperson", she said.
Khera said that people will oust the BJP from power in Haryana and bring back the Congress with an overwhelming majority.
Mounting an attack on the BJP, he said that just a few months before polls, they replaced Khattar as chief minister. "They made Khattar chief minister and then made him vanish one day, now he is not seen even in their posters.
"They cannot hide their failures of 10 years by replacing their chief minister... Somebody has to give account of nine-and-a-half years. They cannot escape from it," said Khera, the Chairman of the AICC's Media and Communications.
He said the BJP cannot quell people's anger simply by replacing Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini.
"Whether it is making Haryana the number one state in unemployment, be it the issue of exam paper leaks, or the failure of the government on the law and order front including on issue concerning women's security, this government has failed on every front," he alleged.
He said BJP leaders talk less about their own work and more about the Congress.
"This shows they are jittery. They keep talking about the Congress all the time. What have they done after being in power for 10 years. They don't talk about that, but they will talk about the Congress," he said.
Even in their manifesto, they had to take the Congress' support. This shows how much bankruptcy there is in the BJP, he said.
"Drug menace, which was unheard until few years ago, has now spread its tentacles," he said.
Amid reports that Selja was disgruntled over ticket distribution for the Haryana Assembly polls, Khera said Selja herself has dismissed these claims, while the BJP is exploiting the issue for petty political gain, he said.
Khera pointed out that everyone is aware of how the BJP has disrespected its senior leaders.
When asked about the BJP's allegations that Selja's treatment in the Congress is an insult to Dalits, Khera claimed Dalits faced the most atrocities during the BJP's rule.
He also said the BJP has in its history appointed only one Dalit president and that too for a short period, whereas the Congress has appointed four Dalit presidents.
To another question on the BJP attacking the Congress on reservation, he said, the Congress has never opposed reservation and never will.
The 90-member Haryana Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on October 5 and the counting of votes will be undertaken on October 8.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)