Prime Minister Narendra Modi may even lose his Varanasi seat in the 2019 General Elections if the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party unite, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Sunday, PTI reported.
Campaigning in Bengaluru ahead of the May 12 Assembly elections in Karnataka, Gandhi said if the Opposition comes together, the ruling alliance will see a “collapse not seen in many years”.
“Frankly, I don’t see the BJP winning the next election...” Gandhi said. “Because there are two basic things: once the Opposition unity goes above a certain level, it becomes impossible to win elections. Now, the Opposition unity has gone to a point. It’s simple.”
“Where is the BJP going to win seats?” Gandhi said, pointing to efforts taken by Opposition parties in several states.
The Congress president’s remarks come just a day after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav confirmed during an interview to a television channel that his party will ally with the Bahujan Samaj Party against the BJP for the 2019 General Elections. “It is obvious that we have to come together,” Yadav said.
The Bahujan Samaj Party extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidates in the recent bye-elections to the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats, which led to the BJP losing these prestigious constituencies. While Gorakhpur had been vacated by Chief Minister Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had vacated Phulpur after taking charge in the state last year.
“We will manage it,” Gandhi said when asked how the Congress will deal with differences in the Opposition. “We in the Congress know how to carry people. We are not egotistical people, we don’t crush people. and we don’t destroy people’s lives. So we will manage it.”
The focus, Gandhi said, was to get the country “out of the mess Modi and the RSS put it in”.
At another rally in Bengaluru, Gandhi criticised BJP President Amit Shah. “The BJP president refers to the Opposition as dogs, snakes, and cats,” he said. “Let me tell you from this stage that no leader of the Congress party will ever use such despicable language.”
“When there was a drought in Karnataka, PM Modi gave the least amount of money to the state because it has a Congress government,” he said. “Is Karnataka not a part of India according to PM Modi?”
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