Kailash Vijayvargiya, a BJP leader, also overseas the party’s affairs in West Bengal (File)

Bhopal:

Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya has triggered a controversy with his remark that he entertains party workers’ requests to secure their release from police custody. “You have to do it sometimes,” he said at a function in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district on Friday, prompting a counterattack by the Congress.

“Even when I’m in Kolkata, I get phone calls from party workers at 2 AM. Some of them say they’ve been caught by cops while playing cards. The party workers are most important for us, so I’ve to call concerned police stations to help the cause of the party workers,” he said at a function, addressing party workers.

Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja said the senior leader’s comment gave a glimpse of the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for the country.

“Modi-Shah led BJP, is this the vision on New India in the BJP, forcing the police to release BJP workers caught playing cards at 2 in the night,” he tweeted.

Mr Vijayvargiya, a senior leader from Madhya Pradesh who also overseas the party’s affairs in West Bengal, is known for making controversial comments.

पत्ते खेलते पकड़े जाने पर रात दो बजे भी थाने फोन करते हैं @KailashOnline क्या सिस्टम और देश बनाया है हमने @narendramodi@AmitShah@ChouhanShivraj@OfficeOfKNath@RahulGandhi@MamataOfficial@AITCofficial@INCIndia@GargiRawat@manishndtv#अब_चीनी_बंद#SamManekshaw#VandeMatarampic.twitter.com/DfugdCr3zD

— Anurag Dwary (@Anurag_Dwary) June 27, 2020

Recently, he claimed that he had spent money to ensure party candidate Usha Thakur won the 2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly election.

“I recommended her (Usha Thakur’s) name for the Mhow seat and gave a guarantee to the party to win the seat for her. Let me tell you that I spent good amount of money there without she knowing about it,” he had said.

The Congress had filed a complaint with the Election Commission over the remark.

BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan replaced Kamal Nath as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister earlier this year following the collapse of the Congress government.