KALABURAGI: AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge has expressed confidence in the I.N.D.I.A. bloc getting a majority to form the government at the Centre. Speaking to the media in Kalaburagi on Friday, Kharge wondered how the NDA will win over 400 seats when it is losing everywhere.
Kharge said he fails to understand the arithmetic calculations of the BJP leaders, who, on the one hand, say the Congress and I.N.D.I.A. bloc will get fewer seats than in the 2019 polls, and on the other hand, accept that the Grand Old Party will win more seats in Karnataka and Telangana.
On the number of seats the Congress and its allies would win in the elections, Kharge said that it was difficult to predict the exact number. “But it is clear that the Congress will win more seats in Karnataka and Telangana. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK and Congress will win. In Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi, led by Sharad Pawar, and Congress together will win half of the seats. In Rajasthan, we would win seven seats. In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, too, we are gaining. We are optimistic that the I.N.D.I.A bloc will form the government,” Kharge, a former Union minister, said.
“The ongoing election is Modi versus people, not Modi versus the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. People are fed up with the NDA government owing to soaring prices of essential commodities, rising unemployment, and rampant corruption,” he said.
The Congress chief said that after the results are declared on June 4, all I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders will hold a meeting and chalk out the alliance’s future course of action.
On PM Modi calling the Congress a party of one family and if I.N.D.I.A comes to power, then the country will have a different PM every year, Kharge said, “People who abuse the Congress of family politics should first introspect about itself and its partners. After Rajiv Gandhi, no one from the Gandhi-Nehru family ruled the country. Congress is known for sacrifice. Though Sonia Gandhi could become the PM twice, she sacrificed the post to Dr Manmohan Singh. Even now, we will give a stable government. The BJP is unnecessarily creating fear among voters.”
“In my 53 years of political life, I have not seen a man like Narendra Modi who instigates people in the name of God, religion, and other issues. BJP leaders say that if the I.N.D.I.A bloc comes to power, it would seize the mangalsutras from women, take half of the properties from backward classes and Dalits, and distribute them to minorities. Are these things even possible? The Congress stands for secularism and will not harm anyone,” he said.
On the Election Commission directing Congress and BJP to not violate the Model Code of Conduct, Kharge said, “Let the ECI do its work, and we will do ours.”