Mumbai, (UNI) Iterating that parties constituting the I.N.D.I.A alliance represent 60 percent of the country’s population, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday said it would be impossible for the BJP to win next year’s Lok Sabha polls if the I.N.D.I.A bloc puts up a united fight.
“The most important thing to understand is that this stage represents 60 percent of the Indian population. If the parties on the stage unite, it is impossible for the BJP to win the election. So, the task in front of us is to come together in the most efficient way possible,” Gandhi said at a joint media conference of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance after its third conclave here.
Stating that the alliance has taken “two big steps” in its two-day meeting at the country’s commercial capital, Gandhi said “The first step is we have formed a coordination committee and committees under that committee”.
“And the second step is we have taken a decision that we will expedite all seat sharing discussions and decisions and make them happen as soon as possible,” said the former Congress president.
Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was extracting money from the county’s poor peope and transferring it to a limited few, Gandhi said the the I.N.D.I.A alliance would come up with an alternative development path.
“The Prime Minister and the BJP are a nexus of corruption and that is the first thing that the INDIA alliance is going to demonstrate and prove. The idea behind the Prime Minister Modi’s government is to extract money from the poor people of this country and transfer it to a limited few and so, we are going to propose a clear development path.
“We are going to put together a clear set of ideas that will once again involve the poor people, the farmers, the kisans, the workers in the progress of this country,” he said.
Gandhi said after the three meetings of the anti-BJP parties, he could say with confidence that the conclaves have helped build a “huge amount of rapport among all the leaders” in ensuring “all of us work together as one”.
“I can see that there is flexibility among all the leaders, in the way we are approaching things. There are differences of course, but, I am extremely impressed by the way those differences are minimised and ironed out,” he added.
Gandhi also alleged that the media in the country has been “chained” and averred that the I.N.D.I.A alliance was working to “free you from your chains”.
Shiv Sena (UBT) President and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the alliance was marching ahead confidently to win the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“We are moving ahead step-by-step and the third INDIA meeting was concluded successfully. We are all nation-lovers and we shall fight those who are opposed to the country, you all know who they are,” said Thackeray, who hosted the conclave attended by 28 political parties from all over India.
Without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party, he reiterated that the INDIA bloc will unitedly fight against autocracy, and corruption, combat atrocities in different parts of the country, and work for a ‘new India’.
“We had heard of ‘sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, but thereafter, allies were forgotten and friends only benefitted. For years there was ‘loot’, during election time ‘chhoot’ (rollback of gas cylinder prices). We will stop all this,” declared Thacekray, whose party was previously a constituent of the BJP-led NDA.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government was “ignoring” the problems faced by the people – the farmers, youth, workers and others.
“Now everybody is unhappy with the BJP to whom they had given power…
The government does not have its feet on the ground,” said Pawar.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal described the BJP as the most “arrogant” and “corrupt” party to come to power post independence.
Describing the unity among the constituents of the alliance as the unity of the country’s 140 crore people, he cautioned that “misleading news about fissures in our unity may be planted, but we are together”.
Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar said the media was now controlled by the BJP. “But we will give them freedom”.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M K Stalin, who spoke in Tamil, appreciated the unity that exists among all the I.N.D.I.A alliance partners.
