Bangalore: BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today (Mar 29, 2004) said Congress was on the verge of a crisis akin to a "civil war" within the party and it might be pushed to a "surprising low" in the coming Assembly polls in Karnataka.

Saying that with less than 48 hours left for filing nominations for the first phase, Congress was yet to declare its candidates for the State, BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley told reporters they were on the verge of a "possible, not dissension, but a far more serious crisis".

"The crisis is akin to a civil war within the party", he said, adding, it was this, which was holding back Congress from declaring its candidates.

As the campaign was picking up, "one belief is being strengthened that, as at the national level, so too in Karnataka, the Congress is in utter disarray," he said.

Jaitley said the social base of Congress was getting eroded and there was a change in the "grass-root chemistry" in Karnataka, where the BJP was finding "groundswell".

"We visualise the Congress collapsing like a house of cards," he said.

Asked to elaborate his remark on "civil war" within Congress, he said, "We are already getting a slight feel of it on its eve". If the party was unable to declare its candidates even 48 hours before the deadline ends, "it is something that is far from normal political health".