SHILLONG, JAN 31: Congress president, Rahul Gandhi said that his party cannot match with the financial power of the BJP, but that would not affect as the party is fighting the election on the works that have been done, ideology and the truth.
“Our party is nowhere near as financially powerful as the BJP is. The BJP is making a lot of money and they are utilizing it but it will not affect us as we are fighting elections on the works that we have done here and on our ideology. We are confident that the truth does well,” Rahul told journalists here on Wednesday.
Referring to the just concluded Gujarat polls where the Congress had performed well, he said it is not that the Congress’s campaign was aggressive but it was because the people of Gujarat realizes what the “truth” is.
Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim to create over 2 crore jobs every year, Rahul said yet there are 30 lakh jobless people in Gujarat.
“…but he (PM) could create only 450 new jobs which is a sad joke. We are attacking them (BJP) on policies and they are not responding but there is a reaction to that in the country,” he added.
“There is a feeling in the country that they didn’t get what was promised to them and the same in Meghalaya as well,” he said.
He also exuded confidence that the Congress will win elections in Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan as there is strong opposition against BJP government.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) president also claimed that the Congress has done a reasonable good job in Meghalaya.
“The chief minister of Meghalaya Mukul Sangma has done exceptionally good job that is acceptable by everybody,” he said.
Citing the road networks in the state as an example, Rahul however said, “But Mr Modi likes to come in and inaugurates these roads but the fact is that we are the ones who finance and constructed them.”
Attacking the BJP for its communal agenda, he further stated that the most important thing is that go to any state where the BJP is in power, go to Madhya Pradesh, go to Haryana or Assam “you will find that they divide the people”.
“They (BJP) create anger and hatred, people are killed for no reason, people are killed for what they eat, for what they believe, but you will not see that in any Congress government. There is fundamental difference between us and them,” he added.
Ahead of the February 27-Assembly polls, as many as seven sitting legislators left the Congress and joined the BJP, NPP and PDF which opponents have claimed was a major blow to the ruling party.
Asked whether the BJP and the NPP, an NDA-ally, would be a threat to the Congress, Rahul said that nobody is a threat because there is quite lots of anti-incumbency going on as well including those who have deserted the party.
He however admitted that the reason for leaders to leave the Congress is because there is certain amount of incentivisation that the BJP is doing.
Not agreeing that the AICC had turned a deaf ear to the demand for change of leadership in the state, Rahul said, “From my perspective, I don’t think that the CM is doing a bad job I think he is doing a good job leading the state of Meghalaya.”
Whether the party is keen to forge an alliance with other parties, he said, “Our approach to alliance is if we share a particular vision, if we share set of ideas we make alliances. We don’t like to make opportunistic alliances.”
On the party’s development plans in Meghalaya, the AICC president however said, “I am not the expert on Meghalaya. The chief minister is an expert and he would be the person who would go into the details of the plans.”
Reacting to another query, Rahul said there is a feeling across the country that the BJP is not listening to the people and that it is crushing voices and taking decision unilaterally without consulting the people and there is backlash against them.
“Demonetization is one of them and the implementation of the GST is another one and now the country is asking a fundamental question against Modi government,” he stated.
Maintaining that secularism is not dead for the Congress, Rahul said that the party’s ideology is that every single person in India regardless of what religion he belongs and from where he comes from, should be respected and treated with love and affection.
Earlier, the AICC president also met religious and traditional leaders from across the state as part of kick-starting the election campaign in the state.
By Our Reporter
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