Congress's guest list influenced by its depleting fortunes: BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP, which was left out of a conference on Jawaharlal Nehru organised by Congress, today took a swipe at the opposition party wondering if their guest list was influenced by its "depleting fortunes" as even those who rejected Nehru's politics were a part of it.

Citing the presence of Left leaders and members of splinter groups of erstwhile Janata Dal, who are proponents of Ram Manohar Lohia's ideology, at the conference, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Arun Jaitley said both groups were opposed to Nehruvian policies in the lifetime of the country's first prime minister.

"Lohia stood for complete negation of Nehruvian politics. He rejected Panditji's politics during his lifetime. The Left's anger against him was further fuelled by the invocation of Article 356 to dislodge the first-ever democratically elected Communist government led by E M S Namboodripad in Kerala.

"Those who rejected Panditji's politics in his lifetime, are a part of the show of strength at this symposium," he said in a statement.

Taking a dig at the Congress, Jaitley asked, "Has the guest list been influenced by the current depleting fortunes of the Congress Party?"

The symposium is being attended by some who rejected Nehruvian politics during Nehru's lifetime and others whom he may have ideologically disinherited, he said.

Mamata Banerjee of TMC, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury from CPI-M, former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda, JD(U) President Sharad Yadav, CPI's D Raja, NCP general secretary D P Tripathi attended the two-day conference organised by Congress on Nehru's 125th birth anniversary.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi launched a veiled attack on BJP in her opening remarks, saying Nehru's ideas were under threat from "misrepresentation and distortion".