BJP tries to cash in on Pranab's 'hand' rhetoric

A Bharatiya Janata Party member on Monday sought to drive a wedge between Congress and its allies by pointing out that the Interim Budget speech only contained references to the 'hand' and not about symbols of other parties in the United Progressive Alliance.

"Pranab Mukherjee said in his speech that the people will recognise the hand that made it possible. It seems the cycle (SP), clock (NCP), rising sun (DMK) and Laluji's lantern did not do anything for the common man, only Congress' hand did everything," BJP's Kharabela Swain told PTI in New Delhi.

He said most of the states where farmers were committing suicide were being run by Congress or its United Progressive Alliance constituents. "We (NDA government) had left the country in a healthy economic state. Now things are bad," he alleged.

In an obvious reference to the election symbol of the ruling party, acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had said: "I have no doubt when the time comes, the people will recognise the hand that made it all possible."