Mysuru: Charging the BJP with trying to de-stabilise elected governments in states where it did not enjoy power, senior Congress leader and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accused the party of being drunk on power.
“Some time ago the BJP began Operation Kamala in Karnataka and persuaded many to resign. Using pressure tactics it has succeeded in getting a BJP -supported government in Arunachal Pradesh. And now it is targeting Uttarkhand,” he claimed, speaking to reporters here.
Accusing the BJP of wanting to be all-powerful in the country by completely sidelining the opposition, he said, “This attitude only indicates that it is drunk on power. But people of this country have faith in democracy, the Constitution and secularism and will not accept it.”
Condemning the tax which the government tried to impose on EPF, and the tax on small savings and Kisan Vikas Pathra, he said all this clearly belied the party’s claim of being pro- poor and pro- farmer.
“This is a soot-boot ki sarkar and a corporate sarkar,” he declared, deploring that the government was not fixing the petrol and diesel prices in the country in accordance with the fluctuating oil price.
“The petrol rates should have been Rs 25 per litre and diesel Rs 18 going by the current oil price, but petrol still costs between Rs 67 and Rs 68 and diesel, Rs 57. When we in the opposition take up for the people, the government doesn’t want to take us into confidence and is impeding progress,” he regretted.
Ruling out the possibility of the coming elections in five states, impacting Karnataka, he said, there was no connection. “We fill field secular candidates in TN, Kerala and Pondicherry and win more seats,” the veteran Congress leader asserted.
