‘Kharge a rubber-stamp, real authority lies with Gandhi family’: BJP on Congress Chief’s remarks on K’taka power tussle

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday slammed the Opposition Congress, accusing the party of double standards on promoting the marginalised sections of society and using its president Mallikarjun Kharge, a Dalit leader from Karnataka, as a mere rubber stamp.

Reacting to Kharge’s remarks that Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, will decide on the ongoing feud between Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar, BJP leader Amit Malviya said, “Kharge’s statement today was not just politically embarrassing. It was an unfiltered glimpse into the feudal culture of the Congress party.”

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In a post on X, Malviya further said, “The Congress lectures the country on social justice, but within its own structure, Dalit leaders are too often treated as placeholders, shields, or electoral mascots, never as independent centres of power.”

Malviya alleged that during the UPA rule, Dalit faces were elevated symbolically while all consequential political and organisational power remained concentrated within the coterie around the Gandhis.

“When the outcome is predetermined, Dalit leaders are pushed to the front. But when it comes to actual decision-making and control, the dynasty takes over,” Malviya claimed.

He said that the remarks of Kharge on the Karnataka power tussle have made it clear that he is merely a rubber stamp Congress president.

“Today, Mallikarjun Kharge removed all remaining doubt that he is merely a rubber-stamp Congress president when he publicly declared that Rahul Gandhi will decide the internecine feud in the Karnataka Congress,” he said.

He added, “Think about the insult embedded in that statement. The Congress president, a Dalit leader, openly admitted that the real authority lies elsewhere, with the Gandhi family,” he said.

“But this is not new. The Congress has a long history of using Dalits as a political convenience while denying them real power and agency. When the party wants a sacrificial candidate for a losing battle, it suddenly discovers ‘social justice’.”