BJP national president J P Nadda on Monday said that senior leaders with 40-50 years of association with the Congress are leaving the outfit as it has become a "family party".
He claimed that the grand old party is getting weakened as it did not amalgamate regional aspirations with national aspirations and commitments.
Without naming Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the Congress days ago, Nadda said, "Senior leaders with 40-50 years of the association are leaving the party. It is because they have realized that Congress is now neither a national party nor a regional one. It has become a family party."
He also listed out several regional outfits and claimed those too have become "family parties".
"The Indian National Congress was such a big party. But now it is getting weakened as it didn't amalgamate regional aspirations with national aspirations and commitments," Nadda said. He gave examples of several states that Congress had ruled for decades but is now not in power.
"The BJP is not run by a family, it runs on ideology. That's why nobody can stop it," the BJP chief asserted while addressing a meeting of party workers after inaugurating the rebuilt Northeast office of the saffron party in Guwahati. Apart from Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his counterparts from Manipur and Tripura, N Biren Singh and Manik Saha respectively, were also present during the program.
Earlier in the day, Nadda was received by Sarma and other senior BJP leaders upon his arrival at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport here from Tripura. He then went to Kamakhya Temple and offered prayers there. Nadda is scheduled to return to Delhi after the function.