Congress-Yukt BJP: Shashi Tharoor's dig at BJP as RPN Singh switch sides

Shashi Tharoor's "Congress-yukt BJP" jibe is a wordplay on the BJP's slogan of 'Congress-mukt Bharat.'

Image credit: PTI

New Delhi: A day after RPN Singh joined the BJP, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday (January 26) took a dig at the saffron party with rhyming sentences in Hindi and the phrase "Congress-yukt BJP".

Just weeks ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Singh quit the Congress party on Tuesday and joined the BJP, in a setback for the grand old party.

A Union minister in the UPA-II government, the 57-year-old leader joined the BJP at the party headquarters here, evoking a sharp reaction from Congress leaders, including its spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, who called him a "coward".

On Wednesday, Tharoor took to Twitter to say in Hindi, "'Chorh kar ja rahe hain ghar apna, shayad unke kuch aur sapne hain, ab udhar bhi sab apna sa hai, ab udhar bhi toh sabhi apne hain. (Congress-yukt BJP)'"

छोड़कर जा रहे हैं घर अपना
शायद उनके कुछ और सपने हैं
अब उधर भी सब अपना सा है
अब उधर भी तो सभी अपने हैं
(काँग्रेस युक्त भाजपा!)

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) January 26, 2022

The tweet roughly translates to: "He is leaving his home, maybe he has other dreams; now there also it feels homely, there also are his own people".

Tharoor's "Congress-yukt BJP" jibe is a wordplay on the BJP's slogan of 'Congress-mukt Bharat' (Congress-free India).

Responding to Tharoor, national spokesperson of the Congress Pawan Khera said in a tweet in Hindi: "One who couldn't be true to his ideology, cannot be our own."

Borrowing the essence of the 'Bhagwad Gita', Khera said, "Have to defeat those who divide people in 80-20, O Arjun; don't look for your people there, don't look for dreams there."

After joining the BJP, Singh said the Congress is not the same party where he worked for 32 years and that he wants to contribute to the nation's development while reposing faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.