BJP needs BC Khanduri to hide behind his cloak: Rahul Gandhi

DEHRADUN: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has derided BJP's Khanduri hai zaroori' (Khanduri is necessary) slogan at a series of election rallies in Uttarakhand on Monday. "Khanduri isliye zaroori hain kyonki choron ko chhupana hai" (BJP wants to cover up misdeeds of its crooks by hiding behind Khanduri's cloak), was the Congress leader's retort while addressing a rally in Srinagar.

With elections to the state assembly exactly a week away, the principal contenders for power in Uttrakhand - BJP and Congress - have scaled up their attack on each other, with corruption and Muslim sub-quota emerging as the main talking-points.

BJP returned fire soon after, with senior leader Uma Bharati dismissing Congress' promise of providing 9% reservation to Backward Muslims in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh as 'anti-constitutional', and asserted that her party would oppose the decision "tooth and nail".

"Congress' promise to give 9% reservation to Backward Muslims is anti-constitutional as it would create a wedge in the society on the basis of religion. We would oppose tooth and nail any such move on the streets and in Parliament," she said while addressing a public meeting in state capital Dehra Dun.

She hit out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for blaming the BJP government in Uttarakhand for not utilising central funds and alleged that the UPA government had a 'discriminatory attitude'.

"The central funds remain unutilised as the proposals sent by the state government were not given sanction in time due to their (UPA government's) discriminatory attitude against BJP governments. This had also happened when I was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh," Uma Bharati maintained.

Seeking to play upon the alleged apprehensions among OBCs about their shrinking job opportunities because of Muslim sub-quota, she dared Congress, SP and BSP to spell out whether the move would encroach upon the turf of the Backwards and Dalits.

Rahul Gandhi, however, kept corruption as the main theme of his anti-BJP diatribe. While the party has been harping at the allegations of corruption levelled at Khanduri's predecessor, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, BJP has made a concerted effort to convert the issue into its main electoral mascot, citing Khanduri's image and initiatives taken by him to curb corruption at various levels of the government hierarchy.

The praise lavished on Khanduri by members of Team Anna for passing a Lokayukta bill which, they claim, comes closest to their Jan Lokpal bill, has also come in handy for BJP to highlight their commitment to combat corruption.

In Rishikesh, in a bid to puncture BJP's campaign, Gandhi wanted to know why the current chief minister was removed during his earlier stint if he was so badly needed now. "BJP may need Khanduriji, but people of the state don't need him. They need development. I want to ask BJP if he (Khanduri) is so badly needed then why he was removed (in 2009),'' the Congress general secretary wondered.

Rahul attacked BJP for adopting double standards on corruption. "They (BJP) say that we (Congress) are not serious in fighting corruption. But they do not see corruption scandals in their own backyard in Karnataka or Gujarat or Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand,'' he said.