The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday kicked off a high-voltage campaign for the coming Lok Sabha elections with its top leadership, including Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and party chief M Venkaiah Naidu, making a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that it "equated India with one family."
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Naidu even spoke of a "big change" in the attitude of minorities towards the party.
Addressing the party's national council, Advani said the Congress's attitude in the opposition was "generally irresponsible and almost always negative."
Making light of a luncheon meeting of opposition leaders hosted by Gandhi on Thursday, Naidu said the opposition parties are a disparate lot and will not be able to come together.
Advani said it was the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government that had effected electoral reforms and also raised the issue of nuclear deterrence under the leadership of Vajpayee.
The convention saw several leaders, including Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State Sanghpriya Gautam, launching a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing it of "perverting the meaning of secularism and turning minorities into votebanks."
