NEW DELHI: BJP on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy over his remarks against the party, with BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra saying, “you may try your best to crush the Bharatiya Janata Party, but the people of India have a crush on the party.“The BJP’s response came after Reddy mocked the party’s national president, Nitin Nabin, and dismissed the BJP’s prospects in Telangana. Addressing reporters in New Delhi, Patra termed Reddy’s remarks “objectionable and condemnable” and said they reflected both the Telangana chief minister’s “arrogance” and the “culture of the Congress”.“Revanth Reddy ji, let me state this clearly without mincing words that you may try your best to crush the Bharatiya Janata Party, but the people of India have a crush on the BJP. You can’t do anything,” Patra said.The controversy erupted after Reddy, speaking at an event in Hyderabad on Tuesday, ridiculed Nabin’s appeal to BJP workers to prepare for victory in the 2028 Telangana Assembly elections.“Recently, a guy came here, Nabin or whatever, I don’t really know his name. But he comes here and says the next government is theirs,” the chief minister had said.Referring to the BJP’s long wait to come to power in West Bengal, Reddy added, “You said the same thing about West Bengal. It took you 15 years (to form a government) in Bengal. Your tricks might have worked there because Mamata Banerjee was at the helm. But here, all our guys are ready, and they will crush you.”Responding to the remarks, Patra questioned Reddy’s claim that he was unaware of Nitin Nabin’s identity. “Revanth Reddy, you are the chief minister of a state in India. You are a member of Congress, a well-known party. Do you know who the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s largest political party, is? If you do not know the president of the BJP, India’s largest political party, then I feel you are not a competent political worker,” the BJP MP said.Patra also accused Reddy of displaying the Congress party’s “culture of servitude” towards a single family, in an apparent reference to the Gandhi family.Drawing parallels with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Patra warned Reddy against mocking political opponents. “Just recall the fate of those who have engaged in such mockery. Mamata Banerjee made a similar joke about Amit Shah,” he said.“I remember how Mamata Banerjee’s lieutenants, like Derek O’Brien, had mocked in the same manner, saying, ‘Tell Narendra Modi to resign’,” Patra added, asking Reddy, “What was the outcome? Where does their party stand today?”The BJP leader also rejected Reddy’s claim that the Congress would “crush” the BJP in Telangana. “People did the ‘khela’ in Bengal. We are confident that a similar outcome will be witnessed in Telangana as well,” Patra said.Another BJP spokesperson, Prem Shukla, also targeted Reddy, calling him a “darbari and ahankari” (obsequious and arrogant) Congress leader.“Revanth Reddy, perched atop the pinnacle of arrogance, should kindly open his eyes and see that Nitin Nabin is the national president of the BJP, the world’s largest democratic party, which is in power in 22 states across India,” Shukla said. He further claimed that the Congress government in Telangana would not survive politically for long.“The same arrogance has now taken hold of you. Your arrogance too, will last only for the next few months. Rest assured that the politics of sycophancy and arrogance will meet its downfall,” he said.Shukla asserted that the BJP, under Nitin Nabin’s leadership, would come to power in Telangana in the 2028 Assembly elections. “Mark my words, Revanth Reddy, your sycophantic and arrogant brand of politics is not sustainable. Your days are numbered. You only have a few months left,” he added.
