People of Jharkhand rejected BJP policies: R.P.N. Singh

Jharkhand Congress in-charge R.P.N. Singh, who was instrumental in stitching the pre-poll alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and leading it to a thumping victory, said on Saturday the tribal-dominated state's mandate was "loud and clear" that the people were fed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) policies on issues like unemployment, economic crisis and starvation deaths.

Speaking to IANS at the party headquarters here on the sidelines of the 135th Congress Foundation Day event, Singh said, "The message is loud and clear. We raised the issues that touched the people, like joblessness, unemployment, starvation, economic slowdown, and farm distress. These issues touched every citizen of the country."

It was "unfortunate" that the central and the state governments didn't acknowledge these as problems, said Singh, who also served as Minister of State for Home affairs in the UPA II government.

The Grand Alliance stormed to power by winning 47 of the 81 Assembly seats in the mineral-rich state. The Congress won 16 seats against six in the 2014 Assembly polls.

To a question over the BJP calling former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as a liar, he said, "Everybody heard what the Home Minister (Amit Shah) said in Parliament and we saw exactly what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Delhi speech. Who is speaking what, the country is watching."

A war of words erupted between the Congress and the BJP after Rahul Gandhi on Thursday shared a video of a detention centre in Assam and accused Modi of lying.

The Gandhi scion had also attached a video clip of a news report in which Modi accused the Congress and its allies and "urban Naxals" of spreading the rumour that Muslims will be sent to detention centres. The clip also showed a purported detention centre being built in Assam.

"The RSS's Prime Minister lies to Bharat Mata," Rahul Gandhi had said in the tweet in Hindi with the hashtag 'jhoot jhoot jhoot (lies, lies, lies).

Following the jibe, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar called him the biggest liar of 2019.IANS