HYDERABAD: BJP vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a dig at Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, saying he was the first to jump out of a "sinking" Congress ship instead of trying to save it till the end.

"You would not know today who president of Congress is. We heard that when any ship is sinking, it's the captain who stays on till the end to save it. But, the captain is the one who jumped first from the Congress's ship," he told reporters here.

Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor BJP president Amit Shah or party activists were resting on their laurels after the party's massive victory in Lok Sabha polls, he said.

Chouhan, who is BJP's membership 'pramukh' (convener), said the party would soon launch its membership drive.

The opposition parties were in a bad state with the SP and BSP "splitting" in Uttar Pradesh and Gandhi "jumping the ship", he claimed.

The BJP's target was to form the government after the next Assembly elections in Telangana in 2023, Chouhan said.

Asked about the "debate" on the stability of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, he noted that it had been formed with the support of the SP, BSP and independents.

Law and order had deteriorated in Madhya Pradesh, where the Secretariat has become an "adda" of brokers, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister alleged.

People regret having voted out his government in the Assembly polls, Chouhan claimed and pointed out that the BJP had won all but one seat in the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP was not into poaching legislators in Madhya Pradesh but it cannot help if the "many factions in the Congress dispensation disintegrate on their own", he said.

The BJP would not topple the government, Chouhan added.

