PUNE: Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday took a dig at the BJP, saying that the party was buying MLAs the way one buys items from the local ‘mandi’ (market).

His comments came in the context of the ongoing crisis in Karnataka government.

“The party had earned a lot of money during the demonetisation period. Now, they want to destabilise the Karnataka government by bribing MLAs of the ruling coalition. The situation has become such that the party has started buying MLAs the way one buys items from the local mandi (markets). We condemn this practice,” he said, while addressing a news conference after visiting the temple town of

.

However, the Congress general secretary claimed that the Karnataka government was ‘safe’ and had majority. “We have enough MLAs to prove our majority, which we had shown twice in the past,” said Singh.

The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said that the government had set a target of achieving a $5-trillion economy, which was not possible considering the country’s unstable growth.

“Modiji had shown a dream of creating 2crore jobs, the return of black money and Rs15 lakh deposit in bank accounts. Eventually, these promises turned out to be a ‘jumla’, nothing else. This promise (of creating $5-trillion economy) is also made on similar lines. Because industrial and manufacturing units are in bad shape,” he added.

The septuagenarian demanded action against intelligence failure in the Pulwama terror attack.

“There was a specific intelligence about the attack, but no measures were put in place to avert it. After the recent blast in Sri Lanka, their minister took responsibility and resigned. In this attack, we lost 44 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel. Why can’t the BJP be held responsible for this failure,” he asked.

Singh said the party’s working committee will soon take a decision on selecting a new president. “The party saw a split in 1968. But the people and workers showed faith in the party led by Gandhi-Nehru family. We all wanted Rahul Gandhi to continue as party president but he decided to resign on his own. Now, the committee must take a decision at the earliest,” he said, adding that the party had already started preparations for the assembly elections in Maharashtra.