NEW DELHI: Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Sunday slammed the BJP government's recent 'PoK will be part of Jammu and Kashmir' pitch and asked what stopped it from taking steps to realise that goal when it had a full majority government for 10 years.
The Congress general secretary, who has been campaigning for the Haryana assembly polls, also exuded confidence that the party may break all previous records to get a larger number of seats.
In an interview with PTI, Pilot said the Congress could get more than a two-thirds majority in Haryana and claimed the top BJP leadership was showing a lack of interest in campaigning.
He said despite attempts by many forces to create a sense of confusion in the Kashmir valley and in Jammu, the Congress-National Conference's collective campaign will ensure they form a government with a comfortable majority.
Asked about Yogi Adityanath's remarks last week about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) will become part of J-K after the BJP returns to power, Pilot said, "I am surprised why the chief minister of a state is making that statement right during the elections, the former Union minister said.
Pilot claimed the BJP raises these issues just briefly for three weeks of election campaigning and after that things go back to normal.
Asked if he regards the BJP talk on PoK election rhetoric, Pilot said, "100 percent, it has nothing to do with reality on the ground. I think these things are brought up every time during election speeches just to sway people's emotions and divert attention. BJP talks about 'one nation, one election', then they talk about PoK, then they talk about other things during polls but what about agrarian distress, record unemployment and inflation, the 47-year-old leader said.
Sachin Pilot further said that the issues of the three farm laws, the humiliation of athletes, Agniveer, will cost the BJP. The middle classes, young people, everyone is now fed up and the Congress is fighting a spirited campaign.
Asked about talk of infighting in the Haryana Congress and there being multiple chief ministerial aspirants as was the case in his home state of Rajasthan last year, Pilot said every single Congress leader in Haryana has said that they will obey the paty's decision.
'We will bring full statehood to J&K when we form a government'
Asked about the BJP's attack on the Congress over Article 370 and the claim that the Congress would bring back the special status, he said, "I think these are all election speeches and the Congress is very clear, as soon as we get the mandate and form a coalition government, the first thing we will do is to ensure restoring full statehood to J-K".
"Never before in the history of our country has a state been downgraded to a UT. The Congress has clearly said that its top priority would be to restore statehood, this directly concerns the self respect and dignity of the people of J-K," Pilot said.
