Thane, Sep 19 (IANS): The Congress said on Thursday that the BJP is rattled by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s growing popularity and credibility in India and abroad and that is why he is being targeted.

AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala said that Rahul Gandhi is the only leader who is fighting against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has proved to be a major challenge for the ruling dispensation.

“That is why the BJP-RSS and their allies are scared and continuously issuing threats to Rahul Gandhi… But he is not scared and won’t be cowed down by such threats,” said Chennithala.

He was speaking at a party review meeting of the Konkan region ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections in Bhayander town of Thane along with state President Nana Patole, Working Presidents M. Arif Naseem Khan and Muzaffar Hussain, Congress Legislative Party Leader Balasaheb Thorat, Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, Satej Patil, and other senior leaders.

He was referring to the recent threats by ruling allies Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad who offered a bounty of Rs 11 lakhs to anybody who could ‘snip off’ Rahul Gandhi’s tongue and BJP MP Anil Bonde’s call to ‘inflict burns’ on the Congress leader’s tongue, which sparked a nationwide furore this week.

Patole said that Rahul Gandhi is a calm leader who has opened a ‘Mohabbat ki dukaan, in Nafrat ka bazaar’ for which he is being repeatedly attacked by the BJP which is responsible for the atmosphere of fear and hatred in the country.

“We shall not tolerate this nor shall we keep quiet… We shall give a befitting reply and the people of the state will again reject them in the Assembly elections,” warned Patole.

Thorat recalled the ruling MahaYuti regime’s purported slogans of ’50 Khoke, Ekdum Okay’ (khoke is slang for crore rupees) in 2022 and said the people have not forgotten how it grabbed power through corruption.

“Now, they have become arrogant with power, and are crushing the ordinary people under their vehicles…or the corruption that led to the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue (in Sindhudurg)… The BJP has lost the moral right to speak about corruption with so many tainted people in their party,” roared Thorat.

Wadettiwar appealed to the party workers to work with renewed vigour and ensure the defeat of the graft-ridden MahaYuti government in the Assembly as well as the civic bodies which are due to go to polls.

Patil said that the mood in the state has changed after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and people are fed up with the corrupt regime of the Shiv Sena-BJP-Nationalist Congress Party, and urged all the workers to take the message to the masses and work to defeat the MahaYuti regime.

The Congress has launched an intensive, region-wise review of the prospects of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, their potential candidates, the challenges posed by the ruling MahaYuti, the issues of people in different areas and related aspects, ahead of the Assembly polls, likely by mid-November.