THE BJP on Sunday asked Opposition parties to not politicise the Balasore train accident and said the track record of the Congress-led UPA Government’s Railway Ministers was nothing short of a disaster. BJP IT department head Amit Malviya shared on Twitter what he said were the details of accidents under these Ministers and added such “worthies” are the ones demanding the resignation of the “most qualified” Railway Minister the country has had in seven and half decades.

The Congress had earlier demanded the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he should accept part of the responsibility for creating an all is well facade even as the critical infrastructure of the Indian Railways “languishes in neglect”. Hitting back, Malviya said, “Stop politicising the unfortunate Balasore tragedy because track record of Railway Ministers, under the UPA, to put it mildly, was nothing short of disaster. Let us focus on relief and rescue operation and putting life and rail back on track, at the earliest.”

Under Mamata Banerjee as Railway Minister, 1,451 people died in 54 cases of collisions and 839 incidents of train derailments, he said. Death toll was 1,159 when Lalu Yadav was the Minister while the corresponding figure for Nitish Kumar was 1,527. Yadav was the Minister in the first term of the UPA Government while Kumar was at the helm during the NDA Government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee. This is the report card of those demanding resignation, Malviya said.