Senior Congress leader AK Antony is one man who is averse to stirring any controversy and found himself in the middle of one. Speaking his mind on the Congress Foundation Day, he urged party strategists to make efforts to win back Hindu voters at least for winning the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It was failure to mobilise the Hindu votes adequately that had led the Congress-led UDF to flounder in 2021 Kerala assembly polls. “The Congress should bring together the majority and minority if it wants to defeat the BJP”, he declared. He also added that the majority of the people in India are Hindus, and this community should be marshalled in the “fight against Narendra Modi”. Reacting to Antony’s speech, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi recalled how this former Defence Minister who was asked by his party to prepare a report on its 2014 defeat had similarly blamed the Congress rout for its pro Muslim bias. “It just shows that Congress indulges in such theatrics to get support of Hindus and once it gets Hindu votes it dubs them as terrorists or as Pakistani, Talibani or Boko Haram.” He felt that just to come to power, leaders like Salman Khurshid would even call Rahul Gandhi “Lord Ram”. Meanwhile, Khurshid stoked more controversy by asserting that “main Congress leaders were from Gandhi family and Kharge ji was our national president”.