Congress a mother and son party, says Gadkari

BANGALORE: BJP President Nitin Gadkari today dubbed the Congress as a "mother and son party", where the post of party chief is reserved only for a member of the Gandhi family.

Addressing a public rally organised by BJP on completion of 1,000 days in office of its first government in the south, Gadkari said Congress was not a public limited company or even a private limited company, but a "family concern".

He said the post of Congress president is reserved only for the Gandhi family.

"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi....Gandhi, Gandhi, Gandhi...one after another...," he said.

"Manmohan Singhji, Chidambaramji, Pranab Mukherjeeji.... they can dream of becoming Prime Minister, if they want (in case of the last two) but can never dream of becoming party president," Gadkari said.

He dubbed Congress as a "mother-and-son party" (referring to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul) and JD-S as a "father-and-son party" (referring to JD-S national chief H D Devegowda, and H D Kumaraswamy, who heads the state unit).

In contrast, he said the BJP is a democratic party, an outfit belonging to the workers.

Citing his own example, Gadkari said he once used to paste BJP posters and deliver voter slips from house to house.

"A common worker like me can become president of the party. This proves BJP is a party of workers," he said.