“Whenever we bring up people’s issues, PM Modi resorts to polarisation”: KC Venugopa

Alappuzha (Kerala) [India], April 12 (ANI): Coming down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader KC Venugopal on Thursday accused him of trying to divert people’s attention from key issues and polarise the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

On the road, campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections with senior party colleague Ramesh Chenithala, the Congress candidate from Kerala’s Alappuzha said, “The BJP has no ground to question or criticise our guarantees in the Nyay Patra (Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections). Whenever we bring up people’s issues on the campaign trail, the PM tries to divert the public by polarising the discourse. When he visits Kerala, he praises the state. However, when he is in North India, he makes unsavoury remarks and statements about South India. The ‘Mission India’ of the BJP isn’t going to work, especially in the South.”

The senior Congress leader and AICC member claimed that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) would win all the Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, adding that the pulse of the people elsewhere in the country was also in favour of the INDIA bloc.

He claimed further that the BJP tally across the country will fall short of even 200 seats.

“Since the election schedule was announced and our campaign moved through the gears, our prospects across the country have improved significantly. We’ve been getting reports that the Congress and its INDIA partners are going well across the country. Now, the people are starting to see through the ‘jumlas’ (tall claims) of the BJP-led NDA. They have come to realise that the government at the Centre failed to live up to their expectations. People from all walks of life are suffering under the present government. Our guarantees are finding favour with the people,” the Congress leader said.

On the BJP’s claim of “Ab ki baar, 400 paar” (over 400 seats this time), Venugopal said, “How can one say we’ll get these many seats even before the elections come around? There wouldn’t even score over 200 seats across the country. People are the sole arbiters of electoral outcomes and it’s hard to come out with such predictions in a democracy. They underestimating and underplaying the role of the people in elections.”

Turning to the party’s poll mascot Rahul Gandhi, he said over the last 5 years, the people have had a better understanding of the ideas that the Congress MP stands for. He added that Rahul would be re-elected from Wayanad by a margin of over 5 lakh votes.

“All corrupt leaders of the country are now with the Prime Minister and he is resorting to political vendetta against the Opposition. His sole objective is to put the Opposition leaders in jail,” the Congress leader said.

He said the grand old party will go into the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal with the aim of eating into the Opposition vote share significantly and cutting the BJP’s projected seat tally in the state. “Our aim in Bengal, going into the Lok Sabha elections, is to reduce the BJP’s projected seat count,” Venugopal said.

On the curious question of whether the Congress was considering fielding Rahul from Amethi or Raebareli as well, he said the party would come to a decision in due course of time.

The elections to 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 96.8 crore people are eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming polls in over 12 lakh polling stations. The counting of votes has been scheduled for June 4.

Polling for 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala is scheduled to be held in the second phase of the general elections, on April 26.

In the 2019 general elections, the UDF won 19 of the 20 seats in the coastal state, with the Congress bagging 15, with the others going to their partners in the alliance.