A provoked Goyal throws a poll challenge to Kharge

A sharp and personal exchange between Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge and Finance Minster Piyush Goyal raised the temperatures in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

As Kharge described Goyal as an unelected Finance Minister, the latter dared the Congress leader from Karnataka to contest an election  against him from Mumbai.

The verbal duel took place in the backdrop of a running protest by the Congress MPs in the well of the House demanding setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Rafale fighter jet deal with France.

In the post-lunch session, Goyal attacked the Congress on various counts in the process of moving and passing of   four Bills on Goods and Services Tax (GST)  Act , 2017. Goyal, during his 45-minute speech, said the Congress would be reduced to just four seats in the 2019 general elections.

At this stage, the Congress MPs briefly suspended

their slogan-shouting to facilitate Kharge to  have his say on the  GST. Kharge objected to the Finance Minister straying into politics rather than focusing on GST and retorted saying that the one  who could not win even a corporation election was telling us that "we would be reduced to mere three or four seats". 

He  recalled  it was the BJP which at one time had  only two LS seats.

The Congress leader retorted saying  Goyal could not get elected even in a local election and was brought to the Rajya Sabha and appointed Finance Minister.

At this,  Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar was on his feet quoting the rule book and seeking an apology from the Congress MP who like Kumar also hailed from Karnataka. 

A visibly upset Goyal  passed a slip to the Parliamentary Minister which apparently led the latter to  cite the example of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who though never contested a Lok Sabha poll was always  elected to the Rajya Sabha.

To Kharge's bite, the Finance Minister in his  equally sharp riposte challengedthe Congress leader to contest from Mumbai against him.

Goyal rejected Kharge's criticism that he was making a political speech and attacking the Congress  as he pointed out that he had said that  many of the bills or programmes  were  initiated by the opposition party   and that "Congress should be taking credit for it..".

Goyal said he had "four times" appealed to the Opposition to support the GST amendment bills. "But by disturbing the House, you are only showing your colour, you are exposing yourself," he said.

"In my speech, I had made no personal attack against anyone. I did not know that Khargeji will take the level of this discussion down to a point where he will start making personal attacks. I challenge you to come and fight an election against me in Mumbai," an agitated Goyal said.

Coming to his defence, Nishikant Dubey (BJP) said the rules allowed a Minister to put forth his observations while moving a bill.

Kharge, however, continued saying he had made no personal allegation against Goyal.

"You (Goyal) said that Congress would be reduced to 3-4 seats. Everything NDA is doing is for the benefit of the country and whatever Congress did was not for the betterment of the country," Kharge said.

Congress members, who were in the well, demanded that Kharge be allowed to continue with his speech.

Later, the Congress members staged a walk out from the House.