Chhattisgarh / CM Baghel will be swept away if you spit: BJP leader tells party workers

New Delhi: BJP General Secretary D Purandeswari on Thursday made some controversial remarks targeting Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel. 

While addressing BJP party workers Purandeswari said that if her party workers "spit", CM Baghel and his cabinet will get "swept away". She made these remarks while exhorting BJP activists to work with a resolve to bring the party in power in the state in the 2023 assembly polls.

The remarks triggered a controversy, reacting to her "spit" remarks, Chief Minister Baghel said he did not expect such a statement from the BJP leader. When addressing a press he said, "What reaction should I give to such a statement? I did not expect that D Purandeshwari's mental state would stoop down to this level after joining the BJP. She was well when she was with us (Congress) as Union Minister of state."

If (anyone) spits on the sky, it falls on one's own face, Baghel added.

According to a PTI report, Purandeswari was making an address on the concluding day of the three-day-long 'chintan shivir' (brainstorming session) with BJP workers. She had joined the BJP in 2014 after quitting Congress. 

During which she said, "We appeal to you (activists) to work with a resolve. If you turn back and spit, then Bhupesh Baghel and his entire cabinet will be swept away. With this resolution, you have to work and with your hard work, the BJP will definitely be elected to power in 2023. The BJP is a party with different principles, whose workers serve the poor, destitute, and helpless with a selfless and dedicated spirit."

Attacking the Congress party further, the former Union Minister said, every worker is respected in the BJP even if he or she hails from a small town or village. She said an immediate answer will be received when asked who will become the next Congress president.

However, this was not the case in the BJP where any worker who deserves can rise to become the party president, Purandeswari said according to PTI.

She then added that the winds of change in the state have started blowing from Bastar, a tribal-dominated region. The ruling Congress has "cheated" the people of Chhattisgarh and they will give the party a befitting reply, she added.

Bharatiya Janta Party ruled the state for 15 years before being ousted from power by Congress in the 2018 elections. This was the first brainstorming session organized in the politically significant and tribal-dominated Bastar region since the formation of the state in 2000. The conclave is being seen as an exercise of the party to regain its tribal vote base in the region where it had put up a dismal show in the 2018 assembly elections.