Opposition leader Tikaram Juli in the Rajasthan Assembly has claimed after voting in both phases that Congress and its coalition will win more seats than BJP in the state. Along with this, he also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now abandoned the slogan of crossing 400 seats. He also mentioned that Modi has never understood the sentiment of the mangalsutra and today he is imparting knowledge about it to the people of the country. Presented below are edited excerpts from the interview:
Question: Lok Sabha elections have already taken place in the state. BJP has raised several issues. How successful has the Congress party been in answering those issues?
Answer: Look, just like every time, BJP has not raised any issue related to the public in this election as well. The Prime Minister made a promise, which has not been fulfilled yet. The people of the country are watching that neither black money has come here nor has there been any guarantee of ending corruption and terrorism. In such a situation, when Modi’s previous guarantee was not fulfilled, an attempt was made to confuse the public by giving a new guarantee after the first phase. The Congress party has exposed all their guarantees. The PM has not provided any vision for the youth, farmers, or women’s safety. He kept manipulating the public only with his words.
Question: BJP claims to make a hat-trick. What is the situation of Congress after the elections on all 25 seats?
Answer: BJP leaders keep making claims without knowing the reality. I want to say with confidence that this time, the public has shown more trust in Congress. You will see on the day of the results that Congress and the India Alliance will win more seats than BJP in the state.
Question: You talk about the alliance, but the scenario of your alliance has already been seen on the Dungarpur-Banswara seat. What do you say about that?
Answer: Look, what happened on the Dungarpur-Banswara seat was the strategy of Mahendrajit Singh Malviya and BJP. We supported the Bharatiya Tribal Party there. As far as the nomination of the candidate by Congress is concerned, the party did not accept the decision of the alliance. Therefore, we expelled him.
Question: Is it true that the alliance between the Congress and the BSP did not happen because the Tribal Party had fielded a candidate against Vaibhav Gehlot, and the candidacy was not withdrawn?
Answer: Not at all. Actually, they were discussing seat-sharing not only in Rajasthan but also in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. While we wanted to support them here. Discussions took place at many levels in this regard. In the end, when the decision was made, we supported them, but this misconception is being spread by the BJP that the alliance got stuck because of Jalore.
Question: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan ‘This time over 400’ and his guarantees seem to have caused some concern for the Congress. What do you think?
Answer: See, if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the slogan of crossing 400, then we have no problem with that. When the election campaign started, many of their leaders said in their speeches that if 400 seats are achieved, then we will change the constitution, and their real intention was also this. This slogan proved that these people were ready to betray the people of the country. Seeing this, there was heavy dissatisfaction among the people, due to which voting was significantly reduced after the first phase. Now you see that after the first phase, the Prime Minister has stopped giving the slogan of crossing 400. Meanwhile, taking the guarantee word into consideration is now a thing of the past. Now the Prime Minister has abandoned both his slogan and guarantee.
Question: Several prominent leaders of Congress have joined the BJP. Has the Congress party discussed this?
Answer: See, some people are opportunists. On the other hand, there are some people who were induced by the agencies and were included in the BJP. Those who the BJP used to call corrupt until yesterday have now been given a clean chit as soon as they entered the BJP. Today, democracy is in danger in the country. Elected Chief Ministers are being sent to jail.
Question: The PM referred to your manifesto and said that if you come to power, property will be confiscated. Mangalsutra will also be taken away. What do you say?
Answer: Congress has been in power in the country for a long time, but nothing like this has ever happened. Our manifesto is completely online. If something like this is written in it, then the Prime Minister or the BJP should show it to the public. They talk about the mangalsutra, whereas the reality is that they themselves do not understand the sentiment of the mangalsutra. They ask about the ARDEX of those sisters whose 40 soldiers were martyred in Pulwama.
Question: Voting percentage has decreased significantly this time. What analysis has the Congress made on this?
Answer: Congress has no problem with the voting percentage. We want as many votes as possible. However, the decrease in voting percentage has become a real problem for the BJP. If they were not facing any problem, then why is the Prime Minister appealing repeatedly to increase the voting percentage after the first phase? This situation arose because people were tired of BJP’s false promises, so they did not even come to vote.