Ahead of Delhi polls, Cong draws parallels between Kejriwal and Modi, but trend started in Punjab

Jalandhar: The Congress is going full throttle against the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi assembly election while drawing parallels between AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, this trend started in Punjab, where a few state Congress leaders began calling AAP the "B team of RSS-BJP" around two years ago.

Punjab Congress leaders refused to have an alliance with AAP in Punjab during the Lok Sabha elections, even as the two parties shared seats in Delhi, Haryana, and Gujarat. At that time, Congress leaders attacked AAP on similar lines.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday mentioned PM Modi and Kejriwal in the same breath, alleging similarities in their strategy, their stance on dalits, backwards, scheduled tribes, and minorities.

Other Congress leaders and social media accounts pushed the narrative on these lines. Former Indian Youth Congress President B V Srinivas even posted on his X handle a morphed picture of Modi and Kejriwal in RSS-style khaki shorts and white shirts with lathis in their hands, writing: "mujhe gaalian di (they abused me): Kejriwal; mujhe gandi-gandi gaalian di (they hurled filthy abuses on me): Modi; difference of only 19-20 between the two."

A similar picture was posted from the Telangana Youth Congress handle.

As Congress accused Kejriwal of being anti-reservation, the party on Tuesday posted on its X handle a video which alleged that Modi and Kejriwal were two sides of the same coin. In the video, they even conjoined the faces of the two leaders while stating that both had the same mentality against dalits and reservation .

Punjab Congress leaders started calling the AAP the ‘B team of RSS-BJP' in the initial months of 2023, and they increased their attacks on these lines ahead of the parliamentary elections. In their statements on different occasions in the first half of 2023, Punjab Congress leaders, including leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, and MLAs Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Pargat Singh, would call AAP the "B team of RSS-BJP" and "two sides of the same coin".

Even on Tuesday, questioning Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann's silence on new UGC draft rules, Pargat posted on his X handle, "@BhagwantMann's govt fully supports @BJP4India's agenda. His silence and avoidance of debate in the vidhan sabha reflect this alignment with BJP-RSS directives."

Punjab Congress leaders have often accused Mann of following the central govt's line on different issues in Punjab.