The Congress took potshots at Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Friday for his remarks that it would badly lose if Lok Sabha polls were held now, terming the senior BJP leader a "perennial prime minister-in-waiting" who is living in a "dream world".
"Advaniji is again living in his dream world. He would like election to happen every week because he still dreams of becoming the prime minister, which he could not. He is a perennial prime minister-in-waiting," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told newsmen at the All India Congress Committee briefing.
Singhvi was reacting to Advani's remarks made on the last day of the two-day National Council meeting of the BJP in Indore.
The BJP leader claimed that Congress would badly lose if Lok Sabha elections were held now as people are feeling that they have been "cheated" by those who came to power in the name of the common man.
The Congress spokesman said Advani should realise that he would never become prime minister even if the elections were announced once again.
Singhvi also attacked the BJP leader for his criticism of Home Minister P Chidambaram over the issue of surrender policy for Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir militants, saying it is unfair for Advani, who himself was home minister in the past, to have made such remarks.
"Advani should not fish in troubled waters and instead look at the record of his own home ministership, which was marked by many unfortunate tragic incidents. Moreover, it (the issue of surrender policy for youths who had crossed over to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for militant training) is a policy, which is yet to evolve," Singhvi said.
Singhvi also ridiculed BJP President Nitin Gadkari for his visit to the birth place of Dalit icon B R Amedkar, saying it exposes the "double-facedness and hypocrisy" of the main opposition party. "They have done it for cheap electoral gains," he said and described the move as a "crude" attempt to seek votes.
He said voters would give a "resounding reply" to the BJP by rejecting it.
"When the Congress does it they say it is a photo opportunity and when they do, it is sincerity. Imitation is the best form of flattery and the BJP is indulging in flattery without limitation," he said, taking a jibe at the "new-found love of the BJP for Dalits".
Referring to BJP leader Arun Shourie's controversial book on Ambedkar 'Worshipping False Gods', the Congress leader said the BJP had neither taken any punitive action against the author of the book, which "demolished the principles of Ambedkar" nor distanced itself from its content then.
Singhvi said BJP leader M M Joshi even opposed reservation for Dalit Muslims and Christians.
He said it was during the Congress rule that a Dalit became president, the head of the judiciary and the first woman speaker, adding, the "Congress stood in word, spirit and letter" for Dalit empowerment.
