Pretty face can’t win votes, says Vinod Narayan Jha

Patna: A Bihar minister’s comments against Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into the Congress party have landed him in trouble. Vinod Narayan Jha, BJP spokesperson and a minister in Bihar on Friday said that “Priyanka Gandhi cannot influence voters by her pretty face. She is beautiful but has no political experience”.

The comments made by the senior BJP leader snowballed into a controversy as grand alliance leaders demanded his removal from the Nitish Kumar cabinet.

“The statement made by Mr Jha is shameful. Chief minister must immediately remove him from his cabinet for insulting women,” Congress MLC Prem Chand Mishra said.

Mr Jha was not the only BJP leader in Bihar to attack Priyanka Gandhi who was inducted into the Congress as general secretary and in charge of party’s campaign in eastern Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 general elections.

In a tweet earlier, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had said, “If Congress wants to be happy over the entry of a woman whose husband has a tainted background, then they are welcome to do it. Everybody knows that her businessman husband has been facing probe in cases related to his land deals and transactions spread across two states”.

He also criticized Congress leaders for comparing Priyanka Gandhi with her grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In a tweet, he said, “Duplicates do not work in politics. She might resemble Indira Gandhi but there is a huge difference between both of them and if resemblance worked then we would have many Amitabh Bachchan and Virat Kohli in our country”.   

Congress’s decision to induct Priyanka into the party was welcomed by the opposition parties in Bihar. Sources claim that her entry would only energize the Congress workers.