Tussle between govt, oppn expected to escalate

In its first conclave in the north-east, BJP appears to be buoyed by the spectacular Assembly election victory in Bihar and the ITAT order in the Bofors pay-offs case.

The BJP has pulled out all stops to target the Congress chief and said the Bofors pay-offs trail leads "directly to the doorstep of Sonia Gandhi".

Despite the Congress claims that the BJP was flogging a dead horse on the Bofors issue, the debate at the party`s national executive as well as the speeches at the NDA rally showed that the opposition was set to target the ruling party at the Centre.

The political resolution moved by Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and seconded by her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had yesterday attacked the Congress and its "first family" as also the UPA mentioning scams involving 2G spectrum allocation, Adarsh Housing Society and the Commonwealth Games with BJP chief Nitin Gadkari dubbing the telecom case as "mother of all scams".

Significantly, the BJP did not target any of the non-Congress parties, including the Left, in its political resolution at the meet which has come at a time when the party top brass sees an opportunity after two successive defeats in Lok Sabha polls.

In his address, Gadkari walked the extra mile to give part of the credit for the Bihar victory to the efforts of JD(U) leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The manner in which Congress leaders, including party spokesman, had hit back at the BJP also suggest that the war of words between the rival sides could escalate.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said that the BJP, by raising Bofors and 2G spectrum issues, was trying to divert attention from "RSS` complicity in terrorism".

Another Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari had claimed that as the investigations grow more focussed, BJP`s stridency accompanied by nervousness would increase in direct proportion as truth has an uncanny way of emerging.