BJP leader Uma Bharti on Wednesday fuelled another controversy when she termed senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh as a “stepney” of Mr Rahul Gandhi and said that he had no value in Uttar Pradesh.
Ms Bharti also announced that crime and corruption would be the main poll planks of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Ms Bharti, who was addressing her first press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday after her return to the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier this month, was in her usual form and did not mince words while talking about her political opponents.
She ridiculed the Congress for raising the issues of crime and corruption in UP and said, “Chor ki taraf chor ungli nahi utha sakta. Yeh kaam sipahi kar sakta hai”. (A thief cannot point a finger at another thief... this is the job of a policeman). The Congress itself has to do a lot of answering on issues of corruption and rising inflation under the UPA government. The Congress has lost its moral authority on these issues.”
Asked to comment on her former political rival Digvijay Singh who is now in charge of the Congress in UP, Ms Uma Bharti said, “He is the stepney of Rahul Gandhi and does not have any value here. it is a coincidence that I am assigned the task of defeating him wherever he goes. First, I defeated him in MP and then in Bihar and now it will be in UP.” Referring to the controversial statements made recently by Mr Digvijay Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said, “Whenever he makes any statement, his own party disowns them. I think the party has left him on his own and it seems that his tongue is not in Congress’ control.”
Ms Uma Bharti, while replying to a question about Baba Ramdev’s crusade against corruption, said that it was unfortunate that the Prime Minister had supported the midnight action at Ramlila Grounds which, in any case, was highly undemocratic.