Mumbai: In a dig at BJP over its leader LK Advani's remarks which pitched Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi against his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Congress on Tuesday described its main political rival as "a pizza without topping".
"BJP is disturbed by internal squabbles on the leadership issue. The party does not have even four faces at the top level who are united. It can be best described as a pizza without topping," AICC media panel member and Maharashtra Congress spokesman Anant Gadgil told reporters.
The current Advani-Modi-Shivraj Chouhan controversy is not new, Gadgil said, adding the party had a history of internal personality driven conflicts. "In 1954, Maulichandra Sharma was made Jan Sangh's president after the death of Shyamaprasad Mukherji. In the Indore convention, Sharma had to quit due to differences with Deendayal Upadhayay, who was the vice president. One of the founder members of Jan Sangh Vasant Oak left the party fed up of such internal bickerings," Gadgil charged.
Similarly, he said Kanwarlal Gupta was thrown out of the party during the tenure of Premnath Dogra as Jan Sangh president due to differences between the two. Another leader Balraj Madhok was sidelined due to his differences with other leaders. Fed up of internal strife, even former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had declared in the Lok Sabha that he will not contest Parliamentary polls.
"When Vajpayee was PM, party publications carried Advani's picture prominently," Gadgil said. Bickerings in the BJP also claimed Nitin Gadkari as national president, Gadgil added. Recently, Advani had praised Chouhan for developing a once 'Bimaru' (poor) state (MP) while Gujarat was already a "healthy" state when Modi assumed charge.
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