BJP president J.P. Nadda on Sunday declared that everyone associated with the party was a worker as well as a leader, trying to lift the morale of cadres who have seen more defeats than victories in recent months.

However, Nadda couldn’t hide his frustration at the serial setbacks — from the April-June general election to last week’s Assembly by-elections — and dubbed the Congress a “parasite”.

Further, he and other BJP leaders seemed to make overtures to Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav — who played a stellar role in restricting the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally from Uttar Pradesh — warning him that associating with the Congress can “finish” him.

Nadda also alleged that those criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including the “brothers and sisters” (an apparent allusion to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi), were “educated fools”.

“The Congress wins with the help of other parties. This means it’s a parasite party, which survives on others and then finishes the party on which it depends. It’s a creeper that takes the support of other parties to grow,” Nadda said at the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh working committee meeting in Lucknow.

Party MPs and MLAs from the state as well as district unit leaders are part of the committee.

“The BJP is a party of the present and the future. We are the only party that represents the 143 crore people of India. We all are political workers. Every member in the BJP is a worker as well as a leader,” Nadda said.

His comments came amid a general perception that the BJP’s poor showing in the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh — its tally dropped to 33 seats from 62 — owed not just to its governance failures but also to its negligence of its own workers.

State BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary said: “Respect for our party workers is our priority. We are not going to compromise on the honour of our party workers."

Akhilesh factor

Breaking from usual practice, all the BJP leaders at the event refrained from criticising Akhilesh.

However, Akhilesh has so far not shown any open interest in the BJP.

Chaudhary compared the Congress with the mythological demon Bhasmasur and warned: “Akhilesh should be careful. The Congress is Bhasmasur and will finish him very soon.”

Bhasmasur had obtained a boon that enabled him to burn anyone alive by the mere touch of his hand. Eventually, Lord Vishnu, in the form of the enchantress Mohini, tricked him into touching his own head.

Chaudhary’s remarks were a world away from the previous stand of his party, which had during the general election campaign castigated Akhilesh as a dynast, corrupt, and a leader of goons.

While the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally from Uttar Pradesh has fallen to 33 from the 62 it won in 2019, the Samajwadis’ has risen from 5 to 37. The Congress won 6 seats against only one in 2019.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said: “The Opposition is overconfident after the Lok Sabha polls and Assembly by-elections; this overconfidence will be its downfall.”

The resolution adopted at the meeting accused Rahul of insulting Hindus.

“Recently Rahul Gandhi… said in the Lok Sabha that those who call themselves Hindu are involved in spreading hatred. His statement is an insult to all Hindus…. His statement suggests that he would ban the word ‘Hindu’ if came to power.... He must tender (an) apology to the Hindu community,” it said.

Rahul had made it clear in Parliament that his comments were directed solely at the BJP’s brand of Hinduism.