Mumbai: After Rahul Gandhi’s swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Ek hain toh safe hain’ slogan, the BJP hit back at the Congress leader on Monday, calling him “chota popat” which it claimed was coined by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray to mock him.
The party also slammed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over his “poisonous snakes should be killed” barb, saying it shows the party’s “Emergency mindset” which likens rivals to snakes and incites violence against them.
Earlier in the day, claiming a link between the BJP’s slogan and the Dharavi redevelopment project being given to the Adani Group, Gandhi pulled out two posters from a safe he had brought to his press conference in Mumbai -- one featuring a picture of industrialist Gautam Adani and PM Modi along with the caption “Ek hain toh Safe hain” and another showing a map of the project.
“It was a very low-level press conference. Bringing a safe and creating drama around it. Holding this kind of press conference by the so-called top leader of the so-called national party does not suit Rahul Gandhi and the Congress,” BJP MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra said reacting to Gandhi’s jibe.
“Today I say this from this platform and in Rahul Gandhi’s language that ‘Chota popat ne kiya hei Congress ko chaupat’ (he has ruined the Congress). His name is Rahul Gandhi,” the BJP leader said.
“I saw an interview of Bal Thackeray where he referred to Rahul Gandhi as chota popat. From today onwards, Rahul Gandhi’s name is going to be ‘chota popat’. This name will now be there on every child’s lips in Maharashtra.”
In another swipe, the BJP said on X that the Congress keeps anti-national elements safe, and if “we are together, then the Congress is unsafe”.
“If the Congress is there, then terrorists, Pakistan, Rohingyas and Waqf are safe. If we are one, then the Congress is unsafe,” it said.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for bringing a safe to a press conference and said the latter would have found something valuable if it was brought from Matoshree, the Bandra residence of Shiv Sena (UBT) supremo Uddhav Thackeray.
“Rahul Gandhi’s act is childish. He should have brought the safe from Matoshree. He might have found something valuable,” Shinde said in a swipe at the Congress leader as well as Thackeray.
Attacking Thackeray for claiming only 60,000 people would benefit from the Dharavi redevelopment project, Shinde said the massive makeover of one of the world’s densest urban sprawls will give new homes to two lakh people.
“Under Thackeray’s leadership (government), only eligible residents, numbering around 60,000, would have got homes,” he said while calling the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader’s statement as “double standards” and “akin to match fixing”.
“We do not seek any political advantage from this. The Dharavi redevelopment project is on a global scale,” Shinde asserted.
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