Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said that polling held so far indicated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been wiped out of South India and reduced to half in the rest of the country. While addressing the media in Ranchi, he also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to polarise the voters on religious lines.
“It has become clear that BJP is going to be wiped out in South India and will be reduced to half in North India. Four phases of voting have taken place in the country on 379 seats and now it is clear that the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc is going to get a clear majority in the Lok Sabha elections,” Mr. Ramesh said. He was accompanied by Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur.
Mr. Ramesh said that after sensing defeat, the language of Mr. Modi had changed. He asserted that the Prime Minister was frustrated and disappointed.
“Now the PM says that he does not discriminate religiously but the language of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister is the language of polarisation. It is clear that BJP’s account will not open in South India.”
Mr. Ramesh also raised four questions for Mr. Modi. He sought the PM’s response on whether his ideology accepted the Constitution. He also asked why the PM was “running away” from conducting a caste census.
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Mr. Ramesh demanded to know why the PM was silent on increasing the reservation limit above 50%. The last question he asked was why the Central government had “weakened” the laws made in the interest of tribals by amending them.
Supporting the Congress manifesto, Mr. Ramesh said it had no mention of inheritance tax anywhere.
“The Prime Minister wants to take the elections on a communal line but we are not going to be misled. The biggest communicator of our manifesto is the Prime Minister. After the PM’s statement, our manifesto was downloaded 5 lakh times, this is a record,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while addressing an election rally at Ramgarh in support of Koderma BJP candidate Annapurna Devi, claimed that Pakistan occupied Kashmir would be merged with the rest of India if the BJP got more than 400 seats. He said 400-plus seats were required to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and build a temple at Gyanvapi. Taking a dig at the Congress, he said that the party would struggle to get seats equal to the number of players in a cricket team.
