Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday borrowed from Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to take a swipe at the Congress ahead of a Lok Sabha election due in less than two months, declaring “I pray you can save at least 40 seats”. The Prime Minister was in the Rajya Sabha to take part in the Motion of Thanks discussion on President Droupadi Murmu‘s address to Parliament.

“The challenge has come from West Bengal… that the Congress will not be able to cross 40 (seats),” Mr Modi chuckled to a soundtrack of BJP MPs thumping desks, “I pray you can save at least 40”.

Ms Banerjee – whose relationship with the Congress and the party-led INDIA bloc is close to collapsing over a seat-sharing row – last week doubted the Congress’ ability to win “even 40 seats”.

READ | Doubt Congress Will Get “Even 40 Seats” In Lok Sabha Polls: Mamata Banerjee

The Congress has slumped to catastrophic defeats in the past two general elections, winning 72 seats in the 2014 poll and only 44 five years later. For contrast, in 2009 the party won 206 seats.

Her remarks followed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s claim that seat-sharing talks are ongoing.

Questioned over the Bengal leader’s apparent distancing from the INDIA bloc, Mr Gandhi indicated he remains optimistic an agreement between the two parties is still possible. “Neither Mamataji nor Congress has come out of the alliance… Mamataji is saying she is (still) in the alliance,” he said.

The Bengal Chief Minister responded with a scathing attack on Mr Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ – which has visited six districts as it marches to Maharashtra – and compared the foot march to a “mere photo opportunity” for “migratory birds”, one aimed at dividing minority votes in the state.

“I proposed Congress contest 300 seats… but they refused. Now, they’ve arrived in the state to stir up Muslim voters. (Now) I doubt whether they will secure even 40 seats if they contested 300.”

Ms Banerjee then dared the Congress to take on and defeat the BJP in Hindi heartland states like the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh; these send 134 MPs to the Lok Sabha and are ruled by the BJP, which dumped the Congress out of the latter two in November.

Trinamool-Congress ties are nearly at breaking point as a result of disagreements over dividing Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats between themselves and Left parties, which are also INDIA members.

Last month Ms Banerjee declared her party will contest all 42 on its own, and only consider an INDIA alliance after the election results, indicating her distrust in the bloc’s ability to challenge the BJP.

READ | “No Tie-Up With Congress”: Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal Twist Stuns INDIA

“I had no discussions with Congress. I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I gave them (the Congress) many proposals… but they rejected them. I am not concerned about what will be done in the (rest of the) country… but we are secular and, in Bengal, we alone will defeat BJP,” she said.

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In a speech replete with fiery poetry, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today welcomed the consecration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and made it clear that the Krishna Janmabhoomi land dispute comes next on the BJP’s priority list.

“When Nandi Baba saw the celebrations in Ayodhya, he was adamant and threw the barricades open at night. Now our Krishna Kanhaiya is adamant,” Mr Adityanath told the Assembly.

“Nandi Baba” here refers to Nandi the celestial bull, believed to be Lord Shiva’s vehicle. The reference is clear – the case involving the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi. Last week, Hindu prayers resumed in one of the mosque’s cellars after a gap of 30 years following a district court order. The prayers were held at 3 am, hours after the court order. The cellar where the prayers were held faces the Nandi idol in the adjoining Kashi Vishwanath temple. The Varanasi mosque is at the centre of a drawn out legal battle after Hindu petitioners approached courts for permission to pray in different parts of the temple.

Mr Adityanath’s “Krishna” mention is an apparent reference to the Krishna Janmabhoomi case. Hindu petitioners have claimed that Shahi Idgah, a 17th century mosque in Mathura, stands on the place where Lord Krishna was born. The Allahabad High Court recently permitted an archaeological survey of the site.

The firebrand BJP leader’s remarks here are a clear indication that after Ayodhya, the Kashi (Varanasi) and Mathura matters are high on their agenda. Significantly, the remarks come shortly after the Ayodhya temple treasurer Govind Dev Giri Maharaj said that Hindus “will forget” issues related to temples “once Kashi and Mathura are freed”.

Mr Adityanath said Ayodhya suffered “injustice” for over 5,000 years. The Ram temple in Ayodhya is coming up at the site where Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque, stood before it was demolished in 1992 by right-wing activists who believed it was built on the ruins of a temple marking the birthplace of Lord Ram. A Supreme Court order in 2019 handed over the disputed land to a trust for the construction of a temple.

Expressing his joy on the day of the grand consecration ceremony at the temple, Mr Adityanath said, “I was happy that our Lord has taken his place in the temple. I was happy that the consecration has been done. But I was also happy that we fulfilled our promise, ‘mandir’ wahin banaya’ (built the temple there),” he said.

The ‘mandir wahin banaya’ phrase was a play on the ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ slogan of right-wing activists when the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation gained steam in the 1990s.

Mr Adityanath quoted extensively from Rashmirathi, a fiery epic by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar in which he narrates the story of Karna, a key character in Mahabharata.

A section in Rashmirathi, titled Krishna ki Chetavani (Krishna’s warning), narrates Lord Krishna’s last-ditch attempt to avoid war between the Kauravas and Pandavas.

“Krishna had gone to the Kauravas and offered a negotiation deal. But Duryodhana refused. This is what has happened with Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura. Krishna had asked for five villages, we are asking for three centres of our faith,” he said, adding that the Hindu majority has “pleaded” for its beliefs for years.

Mr Adityanath blamed votebank politics for the situation. “When politics kicks in and votes are looked at, dispute begins,” he said.

A Delhi court has directed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear on February 17 and explain why he has skipped five summons from the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating alleged money laundering linked to the liquor excise policy scam case in the national capital.

Mr Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has said it is “studying the court order… and will take action as per law”. Party sources told NDTV “we will tell the court how the summons are illegal”.

The central probe agency last week filed a fresh complaint against Mr Kejriwal over his non-compliance. It said he, as a public servant, could not ignore the orders of a government agency.

The Aam Aadmi Party boss snubbed the Enforcement Directorate’s fifth call on February 2.

READ | Probe Agency Moves Court After Arvind Kejriwal Skips 5th Summons

Mr Kejriwal skipped the January 19 summons too, declaring the notices from the agency – accused of acting under orders from the BJP-led centre to target rivals before the Lok Sabha election – to be illegal. He also skipped summons for November 2, December 21, and January 31.

He did not respond to the first because he was campaigning for the Madhya Pradesh election, and ignored the others citing various prior commitments, including a 10-day meditation retreat.

The party has slammed the ED’s actions as “politically motivated” and has complained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “sole aim… is to arrest Arvind Kejriwal and topple the Delhi government”.

READ | Arvind Kejriwal Skips 5th Summons, AAP Alleges Plan To Arrest Him

Mr Kejriwal was earlier questioned in this case – for nine hours – by the Central Bureau of Investigation; this was in April last year. He is not an accused so far. “CBI asked 56 questions (but) everything is fake. Am convinced they don’t have a single piece of evidence,” he had said.

However, two senior AAP members, including ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, have been arrested. Mr Sisodia was arrested in February last year and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in October.

The case refers to allegations the AAP government’s revamped alcohol sales policy allowed it to receive crores in kickbacks from cartels, and that this money was channelled into funding poll expenses in Goa and other states.

NDTV Explains | What Is Delhi Liquor Policy Case Linked To Kejriwal’s AAP

Specifically, both the ED and the CBI have alleged the policy allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers, who paid bribes for liquor sale licenses.

The AAP has strongly refuted all charges. The Delhi government reported a 27 per cent increase in income from the policy and generated Rs 8,900 crore in revenue. The party has also accused the BJP of manipulating the central agency to target it.

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