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Updated: Jan 24, 2019 00:02 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday attacked the Congress over dynastic politics hours after the party named Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as its general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

“In the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party], we do not take decisions on the basis of what a family or a person wants. For those people, their family makes the party. But for the BJP, the party is like a family,” PM Modi said without naming Priyanka Gandhi.

Modi was responding to a question from a party worker from Baramati during an interaction with BJP’s booth -level workers in Maharashtra via video conference as part of the party’s efforts to galvanise its cadre ahead of the national polls this summer.

Maharashtra has the most – 48 – Lok Sabha seats after Uttar Pradesh (80) and is key to the BJP’s attempts to retain power at the Centre. The BJP had swept to power in 2014 on the back of its performance in its northern and western Indian strongholds like Maharashtra, where it won 23 of the 48 seats

Modi said democracy was inherent to the BJP and added the party was made by and was for its workers.

He spoke about Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who is from Baramati, and said he remains a Congress ally despite being humiliated.

“He [Pawar] was a senior Congress leader but look at how the party behaved with him. But the same Pawar, humiliated by Congress, has again gone back to... the Congress...,” Modi added, referring to Pawar’s exit from the Congress.

Pawar formed the NCP in 1999 and has over the years emerged as one of the staunchest Congress allies.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Priyanka Gandhi’s appointment was no surprise because the Congress was a “family concern”.

He wondered why she was given charge of only eastern Uttar Pradesh.

BJP spokesman Sambit Patra called Priyanka Gandhi’s appointment the Congress’s “public announcement” that her brother, Rahul Gandhi has failed as Congress chief and needed a crutch from within the family.

“Because of his rejection by the Grand Alliance, he has opted for a family alliance,” Patra said, referring to the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party’s move to exclude the Congress from their alliance in Uttar Pradesh for national polls this summer.

Patra added that the appointment also proves the Congress tries to find every solution within the family. “She has campaigned for the party in Uttar Pradesh earlier too, and the country has seen the results,” he added.

Priyanka Gandhi has campaigned largely in her family’s pocket boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda took a dig at the Congress for giving “employment” only to members of a family.

“Employment for only a family, because this party does not have a base. Brother, sister, mother and father, everyone has committed robbery together. People know all this; Modi government will return to power,” tweeted Nadda, who is also the BJP’s election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh.

Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot said that no matter what the opposition tries, the Modi government was going to return to power.

(With inputs from Yogesh Joshi, Pune)

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