Congress a sinking ship, even senior leaders deserting it, says Jaitley

Terming the Congress a “sinking ship”, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Monday said even its senior leaders have decided to desert the party while some are refusing to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

“Faced with odds, even senior leaders have decided to desert the sinking ship. Some are refusing to contest. Others are feigning ill health for not contesting,” the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha wrote on his website.

Attacking Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, he said, the Congress leader “has decided to talk up the morale of his party” in these difficult times.

“He claims opinion polls are jokes and that the Congress would improve upon its 2009 tally. If this is sheer bravado in order to lift the sinking morale of the Congressman, it is understandable. However, if he genuinely believes this to be true then surely he is completely cut off from reality,” Jaitley, the BJP’s candidate from Amritsar in Punjab, said. He said several UPA partners, who had extended their support to the government in the past, are now distancing themselves from the Congress.

Noting the UPA won a large chunk of seats from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the last elections, he said, “In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is isolated with a single digit percentage votes.” TRS has turned its back on the Congress in Telangana, he added.

Jaitley also claimed that BJP has a positive prospect for its alliances in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

“At the end of the day the Congress goes into the polls without an agenda with inadequate allies and without an effective leadership. If things can go wrong they surely will go wrong,” he said.