New Delhi [India], Mar 5 : Accusing the BJP of abducting its 14 MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, Congress on Thursday claimed that the "fever" to destabilise the government of opposition parties in various states increases when Rajya Sabha elections are due in order to gain more seats.
"The fever to destabilise a state government, formed by different opposition parties, rises when Rajya Sabha elections are due in order to get more seats in the House," said senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in a press conference here.
As per the Election Commission, three Rajya Sabha seats are falling vacant in Madhya Pradesh as the term of Digvijaya Singh (Congress), BJP leaders Satyanarayan Jatiya and Prabhat Jha are about to complete.
"Ever since the BJP has come to power at the Centre, the efforts to ruin the country's democracy in every state one by one. The BJP has the policy to ensure that every state has the government of their party. It started with Arunachal Pradesh then continued with Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
"Where ever other parties have made governments, their (BJP's) aim has been to destabilise them. This "fever" to destabilise state governments increases when the Rajya Sabha elections are due in order to get more seats in the House," he said.
Speaking about BJP's attempt to destabilise Congress government in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, he said: "BJP's efforts to break the government is not new. We condemn it. We have never done this kind of politics where we have to intimidate people to join us. Our party will take this issue to the Parliament."
The comments came in the wake of Congress accusing the BJP of holding captive MLAs, including Congress and independent lawmakers at a hotel in Gurugram.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that BJP has been hatching the conspiracy to "dig the grave for democracy in our country."
"This is nothing but a ploy to destabilise Cong-led government in other states. Now they are focusing on Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan etc. Earlier, they had made a number of attempts, however, all were thwarted by our able leadership in states. They are using all the resources to put pressure on the Congress MLAs, either by alluring or intimidating them. To be precise, they are adopting a "carrot and stick policy" in order to destabilise the Congress regime," he said.
Calling BJP's strategy a "politics of poaching being invented by leaders of new India", Chowdhury urged all opposition parties to unite against the "authoritarian" government.
( With inputs from ANI )