BJP slams Rahul over 'abuses' against PM, files police complaint; Cong politics at lowest level:Shah

New Delhi/Patna, Aug 28 (PTI) Alleging that abuses were hurled at Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Rahul Gandhi's ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar, the BJP on Thursday asserted the Congress-led INDIA bloc will be "punished" by the people in the upcoming assembly polls, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah termed the incident as a "stain" on the country's democracy.

The strong attack by the BJP and Shah came a day after a purported video showed an unidentified person using a Hindi expletive against Modi from a dais raised during the yatra in Darbhanga town, from where Gandhi, her sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had left for Muzaffarpur on motorcycles.

PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

A delegation of the Bihar BJP lodged a complaint at the Kotwali police station in Patna on Thursday in connection with the incident.

Reacting to the episode of the video clip, Shah said under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, Congress politics has reached its lowest level, and the party cannot tolerate how a poor mother's son has been sitting in the prime minister's chair for the past 11 years.

"The use of abusive language filled with expletives against the Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his late mother from the Congress and RJD platform in Darbhanga, Bihar, is not only condemnable but also a stain on our democracy," he wrote on X in Hindi.

BJP MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra also blamed Rahul Gandhi for the alleged hurling of abuses against Modi and said the Congress, which often associates itself with the freedom struggle, has become a “gali wali party” because the Gandhi family is not able to return to power.

"Congress ki galiyon ki dukan seal hogi, aur iski shuruat Bihar se hogi (Congress' shop of abuse will be sealed, and it will start from Bihar)," said Patra.

“Today the kind of language that has been used for Modi ji and his mother, who is no more, in Darbhanga... If anyone is its creator, it’s Rahul Gandhi, none other. Listen to the speeches that Rahul Gandhi gave recently and analyse them,” he said.

In Patna, Deputy Chief Minister and former state BJP president Samrat Choudhary said "the behaviour of the crowds was characteristic of the RJD's hooliganism. And the Congress puts up with rowdy behaviour in its blind quest for power".

"There has been tremendous anger among party workers who have burnt an effigy of Rahul and Tejashwi. We are also gathering evidence and look forward to lodging an FIR," said Aditya Narayan Jha ‘Manna’, the BJP's district unit chief in Darbhanga.

Choudhary added, "The law must take its own course against those who had abused the PM's late mother. But one thing is clear, the INDIA bloc will not be forgiven by the people of Bihar... it will be punished in the polls." Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, a former state BJP president, also came out with a statement, asking Gandhi and Yadav to tender an apology for the behaviour of their alleged supporters.

Talking to reporters after lodging the police complaint, state BJP media in-charge Danish Eqbal claimed, "Just look at the chronology of the INDIA bloc. First, they invite Revanth Reddy and M K Stalin for the yatra and both are known for abusing Bihar. Then their workers abuse the PM".

Reddy, the Chief Minister of Congress-ruled Telangana, and his Tamil Nadu counterpart Stalin, who heads the DMK, had joined the yatra on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Reacting to the development, state Congress spokesman Asit Nath Tiwari said, "It is not our party, but the BJP, which is known for ‘gali-galauj’ (abusive language). There is so much resentment against the ruling NDA that people have begun venting spleen from podiums. Still, we stop the people from doing so and explain to them that such behaviour is the BJP’s wont, not that of the Congress." RJD spokesman Mrityunjay Tiwari said huge crowds have been turning up for the yatra.

“How do we know which party's supporters had used such language with what hidden agenda? The matter should be investigated. Moreover, civility of discourse has always been violated by the BJP, never by the INDIA bloc," he said. PTI KR DV CORR MNB NAC PYK RBT