Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Mallikarjun Kharge has said he had a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a 'tea-talk' about BJP poaching opposition party leaders where he asserted to him that it was being done by scaring them.
"During a tea meeting in Parliament where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present, I asked him how many people are you (BJP) going to poach as ministers and ex-chief ministers are joining your fold. I asked him about the appetite (to take leaders from opposition ranks into the ruling party)," Kharge told the gathering.
"He (PM) said what could he do if people want to join the BJP. I told him they (BJP) are carrying out this work (poaching) by scaring people. He said these people want to join because of their (government's) work," the Congress chief added.
Slamming those leaders who have left the Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge said party workers and voters made some persons "big leaders", who then ran away, "which is nothing but an act of cowardice".
"But we do not have to get scared. If we are scared, we will perish, But if we fight, we will live and one day victory will be ours. I am sure you are all ready for this," he told his party's workers.
Kharge's remarks have come after party's key Maharashtra face Ashok Chavan resigned from the party and joined the BJP.
Further attacking the Prime Minister, Kharge alleged Modi had repeatedly lied in the past 10 years, while unemployment was increasing.
"Despite this, if people are heaping praise on him then the country will head towards disaster. There will be no democracy in the country and the Constitution will be finished," Kharge claimed.
With inputs from PTI
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