CHANDIGARH/NEW DELHI: BJP derided INDIA bloc’s rally against ‘vote chori’ as a “flop show”, while Union minister Amit Shah said Rahul Gandhi could hope to be PM only in a ‘mock parliament’, referring to Congress’s mock CEC impeachment.Addressing a gathering on Chandigarh Police’s 60th Raising Day on Sunday, Shah said Sonia Gandhi had resorted to the move since her dream of Rahul becoming PM was not fulfilled. “You (Rahul) want to become PM, stay in mock parliament your entire life; your turn won’t come,” Shah said.His remarks highlighted BJP’s counterpunch to the opposition’s campaign against Election Commission and govt over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with BJP functionaries, including CMs, participating in ‘Save Democracy, Defeat Anarchy’ marches across the country.BJP president Nitin Nabin, who travelled to Rohtak as part of the anti-Congress campaign, accused Rahul of deliberately destroying the credibility of constitutional bodies as part of his plan to sow anarchy.As BJP functionaries, like former party chief and Union health minister J P Nadda, expressed jubilation over what they called a “super flop show” at Ramlila Maidan, the party also homed in on Congress’s choice of the date for the rally — the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots which took place in the wake of former PM Indira Gandhi’s assassination — to accuse the opposition party of mocking the tragedy suffered by the community.“They chose the very day when genocide of Sikhs happened to hold a rally. It is like rubbing salt into the wounds of 1984 victims,” said Shah in Chandigarh. Recalling Rajiv Gandhi’s controversial “when a big tree falls, the earth shakes” remark, which was seen by many as the former PM seeking to rationalise the mass killings of Sikhs, a combative Shah emphasised that BJP had urged Congress not to hold the rally between Nov 1 and 3, days associated with the massacre.
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Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, joined by deputy CM Eknath Shinde, led the march in Thane, while CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and CM Rekha Gupta led similar anti-Congress protests in Uttarakhand and Delhi, respectively.Former education minister Dharmendra Pradhan along with Union minister Kishanpal Gujjar led a march in Faridabad. Assam CM Himata Biswa Sarma joined a protest at Shimla alongside former CM Jairam Thakur and former Union minister Anurag Thakur. Poll-bound Uttar Pradesh saw six BJP rallies. Charges of “anarchy” and “undemocratic conduct” were the themes across the rallies, with party functionaries like Union minister Bhupendra Yadav alleging that Congress’s anti-SIR protest was a ploy to mask Rahul Gandhi’s repeated political failures.