AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal claims that the INDIA bloc will win 300 seats and form the government after June 4. He tells Preetha Nair that all the constitutional bodies have been compromised under the BJP government and also accuses the Election Commission of being biased against Opposition parties. Excerpts:
After the four phases, the INDIA alliance has been exuding confidence that the tide is in your favour. What is your assessment?
We are confident that the INDIA alliance will get 300 seats and we will form the government after the election. The general mood in the Hindi heartland has changed in favour of the INDIA alliance. In the southern states, we are far ahead of the BJP. Out of the 28 seats in Karnataka, we expect to get a two-third majority.
We secured only three seats in Telangana in the 2019 elections, but this time we will get 11-12 seats. In Kerala, the Congress will sweep the elections. The BJP will get zero seats in Tamil Nadu, and the alliance will sweep. In Maharashtra, too, the Maha Vikas Aghadi is poised to get at least half of the total seats. In Bihar also, we will score very well. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will lose 15- 20 seats and the INDIA may get around 40 seats. Our calculation is that we may get 10 seats in Rajasthan and 5- 6 in Haryana.
But the BJP claims that it has crossed 270-mark after the four phases...
In the beginning of the election, PM Modi set a target of 400 seats for the BJP. But the ground reality is entirely different. Now the BJP realised that it is losing many seats that it has won last time. The party is in panic. That is why the PM resorted to low-level attacks on secularism and religious identities. This hasn’t happened in the history of Indian politics. Elections will come and go. But people have to live together. The PM is the first person to think about that. But unfortunately, there is no thinking from his side. If they are confident of getting 400 seats, why are they stooping to such levels? They are only talking about polarisation agendas. There is no talk of pressing issues such as unemployment, price rise, women’s safety or agrarian crisis. People are fed up with this government.
Do you see a repeat of 2004 this time?
I would say that it will be a repeat of the 2009 elections.
The government granted citizenship to its first batch of 14 refugees under the Citizenship Amendment Act on Wednesday. PM Modi said nobody can remove CAA. What is your party’s position on this?
The PM doesn’t want to talk about the real issues in this election. We don’t want to follow his agenda. Our position is that we will give citizenship to genuine people who deserve citizenship.
Their agenda is to divide the people based on religion and communities, The CAA was passed in 2019 and they framed the rules after five years in 2024, Now in the middle of the election, they implemented it.
The Congress is contesting fewer seats than ever in this election to accommodate INDIA bloc partners. Will the party make compromises if the INDIA bloc wins this election?
This is a hypothetical question. I don’t want to comment on that. We made sacrifices to reduce the maximum number of seats for the BJP. We have made sacrifices during the process of alliance discussions. Our country is going through a dangerous period under this government. Entire constitutional bodies have been compromised including the Election Commission of India. The Prime Minister is making hate speeches daily and the EC is a mute spectator. The EC is only there to act against the Opposition parties.
PM Modi said that if the INDIA bloc gets a majority to form a government then the alliance has plans of appointing five Prime Ministers with one PM every year. This brings up the question of the PM’s face for the alliance..
The PM is making such statements out of desperation. We will decide our PM candidate within 24 hours of the announcement of results. The new PM will rule for five years.
Is Congress pitching for Rahul Gandhi as PM face?
This is not the time to talk about it. After winning the election, we will sit together and decide the Prime Minister candidate.
The PM has been attacking the Congress with allegations of appeasing Muslims and being anti-Hindu. He claimed that 15% of the UPA government’s budget was for Muslims.
How can the Prime Minister tell such lies to the country? He’s talking about the Muslim community and the Congress wants to ask him what he has given to the Hindus. The majority of the Indian youth are Hindus and are unemployed. Take the case of farmers, women and others..I don’t want to talk like the BJP, But for the sake of argument, I want to ask them. He is only concerned about two or three Hindus like Adani and Ambani.
PM Modi says that Congress will provide reservations to Muslims from the quotas earmarked for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
At least four leaders of the BJP have spoken about changing the constitution if they get 400 seats in this election. Their idea is to give away this reservation system. When we complained to the Election Commission, then the BJP turned the table on us by saying that we will take away the SC/ST reservation. No one can change the OBC, SC/ST reservation system.
We won’t allow it, come what may.
Will we see Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Congress top leaders campaigning together in the coming phases?
State leaders are focusing on state-level programmes. There is no combined INDIA leaders programme anywhere. In Uttar Pradesh, we have an alliance with Samajwadi Party. That is why we are having joint programmes with Akhilesh today. Whenever we have joint programmes in Delhi, we will join the AAP leaders.
