Congress' actions have distanced people from it: Jaitley

BJP leader says Congress acting as an 'obstructionist opposition' in Parliament hasn't helped party's cause much

Attacking the Congress over "dynastic politics", Union Minister Arun Jaitley today said that when "attraction" for a "family" ends, the party has to pay for it.

"When people's attraction for a family ends, the party has to pay a price for it," Jaitley said during his address to BJP workers here.

The BJP leader said that the Congress acting as an "obstructionist opposition" in Parliament hasn't helped the party's cause much.

"The Congress party is working as an obstructionist opposition, which has further distanced people from it and their support base is getting reduced," Jaitley claimed.

"They go to places where anti-national slogans are raised and they try to do politics there. Can such actions attract people towards the party?" he asked, in an apparent reference to the JNU incident.

Jaitley claimed that during UPA rule there was rise in corruption cases as the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not have much say in the decision-making.

"UPA gave this nation a prime minister for 10 years but did not give him any rights. As a result, the government was never in a position to take decisions and corruption grew," he said.

Jaitley credited the Narendra Modi-led NDA government with changing the national political discourse from "corruption towards development".

"Earlier, corruption was a common issue but in the last two years, Prime Minister Modi has erased the word corruption from India's dictionary," Jaitley said.

"We took swift decisions and those decisions are being implemented. Even our rivals agree. The government's efforts has made India the fastest growing economy in the world in the last two years. And the way things are shaping up, we hope to progress even more swiftly," he added.

Buoyed by the positive result in the just-concluded Assembly elections, Jaitley exhorted the party workers to work with dedication so that BJP can raise the victory flag in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled to be held next year.

"All the workers should start preparations for the UP elections in order to register victory here. You should reach out to the masses and tell them about the works done by the Centre," he said.

Jaitley noted that BJP and its allies were in power in 15 states now and voiced confidence it will also wrest power in Karnataka.