On Sunday, as the election manifestos of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were released in Mumbai, political rhetoric took centre stage with leaders from both sides taking sharp digs at each other. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, addressing a rally at the MVA’s manifesto release event, fiercely criticised the BJP, accusing them of dividing society. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll pitch, ‘Ek hai toh safe hai’, Kharge countered that it was the BJP, not the Congress, that had already fragmented communities through policies such as ‘Manusmriti’. He further questioned the BJP's commitment to social justice, highlighting that the party had not appointed significant numbers of people from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities to key ministries.

Kharge also took a jab at the BJP’s ‘appeasement’ politics, accusing the party of dividing the nation through its stances on various issues, including the controversial caste census. His remarks came as part of a broader critique of the BJP’s divisive agenda and the ruling party’s failure to honour promises made to the public in states such as Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana.