BJP's celebration over Jitin Prasada's induction 'hilarious': Shiv Sena

The Shiv Sena on Friday described as ldquohilariousrdquo the BJPrsquos celebration over the induction of Uttar Pradesh leader Jitin Prasada into the party fold but also said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will have to create a strong team in his partyIn a shot in the arm for the BJP Prasada a Congress leader joined the saffron party on Wednesday months ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year The 47year former Union minister comes from a wellknown Brahmin family of UPIn an editorial in party mouthpiece lsquoSaamanarsquo the Shiv Sena said Prasada a young leader was of no use to the Congress and will remain so to the BJP Jitin Prasada Jyotiraditya Scindia Sachin pilot were young leaders and there were high expectations from them There is already a vacuum in the Congress after the death of Ahmed Patel and Rajeev Satav It is not good that young leaders are going the BJP way the Sena saidPrasada who had faced defeat in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections has finally joined the BJP Prasadarsquos family members were Congress loyalists He was a minister in former prime minister Manmohan Singhrsquos cabinet However he kept losing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections The BJP has now started celebrating his induction into the party fold The caste politics of Uttar Pradesh is behind it Eye on UPrsquos Brahmin vote bank is being said to be behind Prasadarsquos induction into the BJP it said But if Prasada had a hold over the Brahmin votes why these votes werent transferred to the Congress it askedAlso ReadCongress leader Jitin Prasada joins BJPThe Sena said that BJPs traditional upper caste vote must be drifting away from the party Till now the BJP did not require any arithmetic or face in UP Narendra Modi was everything Ram mandir or Hindutva were the issues to win votes But now the situation is so bad that it wants support of Prasadardquo it said sarcasticallyThe Uddhav Thackerayled party said the important issue is why are the Congress leaders jumping ship Talking about the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP and the rebellion of Sachin Pilot the Sena said that in Punjab too there is a rebellion in the Congress It however said that rebellion and factionalism is not restricted to the Congress aloneDespite being in position to win Kerala and Assam the Congress couldnt do so It lost Puducherry But there is no discussion on what the Congress should do next and how it should resurrect itself Except in Maharashtra Kerala and Karnataka the Congress is fighting for its survival everywhere else This political imbalance is harmful to the democracy it said The Congress has done a lot of work in the preIndepedence era and even after that The Congress has a contribution in building the nation Even today the lsquoNehruGandhirsquo identity of the country cannot be obliteratedhellipThe Congress has a strong hold at the grass root level it said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has ably carried out her responsibility in the party Now Rahul Gandhi has to create a strong team which will be the answer to the challenge before the party the Sena addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever