BJP relocated Shivaji statue in Parliament over Maha poll result: Congress

The statues of tribal leader Birsa Munda and Maharana Pratap have also been shifted to a lawn between the old Parliament building and the Parliament library as part of a landscaping exercise

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday launched an attack on the Centre over the issue of shifting statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar within the Parliament premises.

“Statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar have just been removed from their places of prominence in front of the Parliament House. This is atrocious,” Ramesh said in a post on X, sharing the pictures.

The statues have been moved from their original places as part of a landscaping exercise, the news agency PTI reported. The statues of tribal leader Birsa Munda and Maharana Pratap have also been shifted to a lawn between the old Parliament building and the Parliament library. All statues are now in the same place.

Congress leader Pawan Khera also strongly criticised the move, linking it with the BJP’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections 2024.

“When Ayodhya defeated the BJP, these people started abusing the Ram devotees. When Maharashtra voters did not vote for BJP, the statues of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Baba Saheb Ambedkar were removed from their original place in Parliament. When they did not get 26/26 seats in Gujarat, they removed the statue of Mahatma Gandhi from its original place in Parliament. Just think, if we had given them 400 seats, would they have spared the Constitution?” Khera said in a post on X.

The Congress’ reaction followed two days after the Lok Sabha elections results declared a humbling victory for the saffron party, which failed to replicate its 2019 performance of winning a majority by itself.

The party won 240 seats, 62 less compared to the 2019 polls. Maharashtra and UP marked two states where the BJP lost heavily.

In UP, its seats reduced to 33 from 62 last time and in Maharashtra, it dropped to nine from 23 in 2019. The BJP-led coalition faced major dents in vote share in UP and Maharashtra, where the Congress-led INDIA bloc was able to bridge the huge gap seen in the 2019 polls. In UP, the vote share gap reduced from 11.8 per cent to just 0.7 per cent while in Maharashtra, the gap dropped to 19.1 per cent to -1.2 per cent this time.

As part of the redevelopment of external areas, the statues of national icons, including those of Gandhi, Shivaji and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, were to be moved to a lawn near Gate No 5 of the old Parliament building, which has been named Samvidhan Sadan.