Arun Jaitley: Congress has turned into a fringe organisation'

New Delhi: Calling the Congress top brass as “chunavi Hindus”, Union minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the “Grand Old Party of Indian politics has turned into a fringe organisation”.

The senior BJP leader said Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s comment that her party will cut into the BJP’s votes in Uttar Pradesh is a “confessional statement” about her party becoming a “fringe organisation.”

“When VHP used to say garv se kaho hum Hindu hain (say with pride that you are a Hindu) then some people used to call its communal. But many have since 2014 started interpreting what they (VHP) had been saying... They have been visiting temples during elections which they never used to do,” said Mr Jaitley.

Seizing on the Congress general secretary’s remarks made on Wednesday in Amethi that her party will not adversely impact the prospects of the SP-BSP alliance and its candidates will either win or cut into the BJP’s votes, Mr Jaitley said, “This is her confessional statement about the Congress becoming a fringe organisation... A mainstream party, the Grand Old Party of Indian politics is now a fringe organisation in India.”

He said the Congress used to be a party of 300-400 seats during the times of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, then became a party of 125-150 seats during Rajiv Gandhi’s era and is now a party of 40-70 seats, except in the 2009 elections when it won more than 200 seats.

Asked to react on AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal’s reported comments that voters should take bribe if offered by rival candidates, but should vote for his party, Mr Jaitley said some leaders are not worthy of response.

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