New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI): BJP today mounted a blistering attack on the Congress over Shakeel Ahmed's remarks that the 2002 Gujarat riots had led to creation of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), saying it is a desperate strategy for electoral gains even as his party distanced itself from the comments.

Congress general secretary Ahmed's tweet that IM was formed as a reaction to the post-Godhra riots by the aggrieved drew a sharp reaction from Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. The BJP leader slammed the Congress for this "desperate strategy" to communalise the electorate ahead of the 2014 elections.

In a statement posted on the BJP website, Jaitley said Congress-led UPA government is facing a huge anti-incumbency, there is visible leadership failure, ineffective leadership and highly inadequate governance.

"The government has run out of ideas on how to bring the economy back on rail. The UPA has added corruption as a new Directive Principle of state policy," he said.

The BJP leader claimed that conventional Congress strategy in such a situation is to bank on the alleged charisma of the Congress first family. "Unfortunately, that charisma appears to be inadequate. The outgoing leadership of the UPA is perceived to be ineffective; the incoming are perceived to be non-leaders," he said.

Hence, Congress adopted the strategy of deflecting attention from the governance crisis and lack of leadership by communalising the polity and changing the electoral agenda, the opposition alleged.

Jaitley charged that Ahmed was trying to re-write history. "His effort is to somehow paint the IM as an organisation of the aggrieved who are victims of riots in Gujarat," he said

Congress was quick to distance itself from Ahmed's remarks with party spokesperson Renuka Choudhary saying, "It is not the party line as of now".

RSS too hit out at the Congress and asked it to take responsibility for Ahmed's comments. "Congress is the fountainhead of all forms of terrorism in India," RSS leader Ram Madhav said.