As the Congress Party lost the Maharashtra civic polls where it managed to get only 31 seats in Mumbai, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday took the opportunity to take a dig at the grand old party, stating it is losing its credibility by following obstructionist policies in the Parliament.
Jaitley in his Facebook post said that the results in the recently concluded Odisha and Maharashtra civic polls showed how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is becoming a pan-India party while the Congress is getting 'squeezed out of the contest'.
"The first message of these elections is that BJP has become a pan-India party which is now fast spreading its roots even in the eastern and southern states. The forthcoming election for the Karnataka Assembly will reassert this," he said.
"But what about the Congress? In Odisha, it got squeezed out of the contest. In Maharashtra, it got pushed to third or fourth place in most cities. It is not even a major contestant in States like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. It is struggling to survive by becoming the tail-ender in an alliance in these states," he added.
Jaitley said the Congress' disruptive role in the Parliament has been projected it as a 'fringe rather than a mainstream' political party.
"It has failed to behave like a natural party of governance. It is seen as anti-reformist, anti-growth. Scandals of the 2004-2014 continue to tumble out," he said.
Jaitley further pointed that the Congress Party's stand on demonetisation is costing it dearly.
"The Congress Party has lost its traditional constituency of the poor electorate to the BJP. In any case, a Party which has governed India for more than half a century cannot afford to take a stand which supports excessive use of cash and ridicules the new tools of technology which will enable digital transactions to be a substitute for cash," he said.
The BJP has emerged victorious at all the other eight municipal corporations barring Mumbai and Thane Municipal Corporations that went to polls this week.
BJP has also emerged as a clear choice in nine out of the 25 Zilla Parishads.
In Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, the ruling Shiv Sena has registered victory by securing 84 seats out of total 227 seats.
The BJP has gained the second position bagging 81 seats. .
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)