NEW DELHI : The Congress on Friday asserted that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will get a clear and decisive mandate to form the next government.
Addressing the media in Chandigarh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said that history was repeating itself after 20 years. “2024 will be a repeat of 2004 when the Congress-led alliance stormed to power,” Ramesh said.
Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe of “five PMs in five years” for the INDIA bloc, Ramesh said the name of the prime minister will be announced by the INDIA bloc within three days after the result of the elections is declared on June 4. The bloc will have one person as prime minister for five years, he said.
“Those who repeatedly raise the question about who will be the PM if INDIA bloc comes to power... I want to remind them that in 2004, after the Congress and its allies got the mandate, Dr Manmohan Singh’s name was announced for the PM post within three days,” he said.
“This time, it will not even be three days,” Ramesh asserted and added that “one person will be prime minister for five years to run the government”.
He said that the prime ministerial candidate will be selected in a democratic way by members of the INDIA bloc.
“Elections in our country are not a beauty contest. In our country, an election is between parties, our democracy is party-centric and not person-centric,” Ramesh said.
“The feedback from different states, where Congress had fared badly in 2019, was quite encouraging. It did very well this time. Modi’s language changed since April 19 and he started communalising his election strategy, turning everything into a Hindu-Muslim issue. There has been a change in the language Modi has been using in his speeches after April 19,” said Ramesh, “No talk of Viksit Bharat, Modi ki guarantee or farmers’ issues.”
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Jairam Ramesh said the feedback from different states, where Congress had fared badly in 2019, was quite encouraging. “It did very well this time. Modi’s language changed since April 19 and he started communalising his election strategy, turning everything into a Hindu-Muslim issue,” he said.