Nabin slams Oppn over excuses for poll defeats

Gorakhpur: BJP national president Nitin Nabin on Wednesday accused opposition parties of making excuses for their electoral defeats and took jibes at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, saying “today’s youth have rejected such princes”.

Addressing an NDA rally during the party’s ‘Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao’ campaign in Gorakhpur, Nabin said the two “princes” of Uttar Pradesh — Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav — had a record of misdeeds that people in the state and the country remembered.

Further attacking Gandhi, Nabin said he was a “part-time politician” who remained politically active only during elections, unlike BJP workers who continued public service throughout the year.

Referring to the opposition’s November 1 rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, he claimed that it failed to draw even 10 per cent of the crowd its organisers had projected. In contrast, he said, the BJP and its NDA allies were holding large marches in districts and towns across the country, which, according to him, reflected the alliance’s strength and public support. Targeting Gandhi, Nabin said he could continue to spread lies, but the country had changed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He claimed that 140 crore people regarded Modi as their PM and as a “chowkidar” protecting their homes, families and the country. On the opposition’s allegations concerning the SIR exercise, Nabin said parties that had lost elections were blaming the revision instead of examining their own organisational weaknesses.

He asked why they had suffered electoral defeats before 2025 as well, when the current SIR exercise had not been conducted. The opposition parties would not have been in their present position had they worked among people and remained connected with their party workers, he said.