Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily on Saturday exuded confidence that UPA will return to power at the Centre following the 2014 general elections.
Dismissing the pre-election survey reports by media and other organisations on the possible defeat of the Congress-led UPA Government in the next elections, Moily told a gathering of party leaders at Congress Bhavan here not to take them seriously. “Don’t accept these reports at their face value as many a time they are proved to be misleading and at times it is manipulated,” Moily said. Giving a Statewise analysis, Moily said the Congress will do well in many States while the BJP may not open its account in the southern states, except Karnataka. The BJP may get one or two Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, he added. “The Congress will come to power in Odisha if we fight unitedly,” he said.
The Naveen Patnaik Government has done nothing significant for the development of the State during the last 13 years. Besides, the State Government has failed miserably in addressing the issue of poverty, Moily said.
“I see a better chance for the Congress to win the next general elections. But this will be possible if the party fights the election unitedly,” he exhorted.
Moily asserted that the Congress will return to power in all the States where it is in Government. On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Moily said the chairman of the BJP national election campaign committee is not liked by many within his party. Even Shiv Sena, one of the closet allies of the NDA, hates Modi.
Although Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalaithaa claims Modi as a good friend of hers, she is non-committal about her party’s support to the NDA, he added. Moily, who visited the Indian Oil’s Paradip Refinery project, said this project is the biggest contribution to the State.
The Union Minister promised to come to the aid of the State if any project proposal for development of backward districts is submitted to his Ministry.