‘Elections will happen in 2014, not before’
15 Jun 2013 1:37 AM GMT
On the issue of assembly elections in four states, Singh said: ‘We will go aggressive to get a clear mandate to govern the country and complete our agenda of a strong, secular, socialist nation that empowers the people.’
Regarding the Congress’ fate in the state elections, Singh sounded confident. ‘We have a strong chance of winning in Rajasthan and Delhi. We also have a strong chance of bringing Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh back to the Congress party.’ And the Lok Sabha elections? ‘I think we will prove all the prophets of doom wrong.’
On the appointment of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the chairman of the national election committee of the BJP, Digvijaya said: ‘As far as we are concerned, Mr Narendra Modi is the chief minister of Gujarat and that is it. Just as Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and Dr Raman Singh is the chief minister of Chhattisgarh. We only consider him as the chief minister of Gujarat.’
‘His new post in the party as the campaign committee chairman doesn’t make a difference as earlier also, in 2004 and 2009 parliament elections, the BJP had appointed its own leaders as chairman of campaign committees. But surprisingly, the media has given a tremendous hype this time. As far as we are concerned, Narendra Modi is not an issue. He is not a threat to us in anyway,’ he added.
What about senior BJP leader LK Advani’s resignation from party positions? Did that controversy help the Congress? ‘It does not make a difference to us. He (Advani) said something where he was very critical of the situation prevailing within the BJP. He said self-seeking people were dominating the party. Then, suddenly, within 36 hours, he withdrew his resignation. It has hit the credibility of Mr Advani to a great extent. Whether this is beneficial or not to us, we will come to know later. But we are not enthused or elated over this. We will fight the BJP on ideology and not internal party politics.’
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