BJP not an election-winning machine, says Sachin Pilot

New Delhi: Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Friday said BJP is not an election-winning machine, saying that the term 'election-winning machine' means nothing but the abuse of public money and power and was a myth.

While commenting on the BJP's determination to win elections, Pilot said every BJP worker worked hard in the recent bypolls, but that did not help and added that BJP will have to rise above the misconception that their election management will win them the mandate despite not working for the people.

While pointing out that the BJP lost in all constituencies in the recent bypolls, the Rajasthan Congress chief said the defeat showed BJP's image in the minds of both urban and the rural voters. Pilot claimed that in the last 40 years, the ruling party has always won bypolls, but this was the first time that an opposition party in Rajasthan had won them.

When asked about the possibility of him being the next CM of Rajasthan Pilot said, "I am the Rajasthan Congress chief. Who gets what post in the future, I neither know about it nor care." It has never been the tradition of the Congress party to declare CM faces before an election, only the BJP indulges in that habit, agency quoted him as saying.

He said while the BJP has declared its CM faces for the upcoming polls in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, it has still not declared Vasundhra Raje as the CM face in Rajasthan despite her being the incumbent chief minister. Pilot claimed this shows her falling popularity. About secularism, Pilot said politicising religion has become a dangerous precedent in the country. Citing a few BJP leaders' open hate speeches against other communities, he said that the Congress never believed in such politics.

He said Congress chief Rahul visiting a temple or a Gurudwara is highlighted only by the BJP as part of its communal politics. Pilot said that the BJP accuses the Congress of wooing Hindu voters only on such occasions. He said that under the garb of cow politics and communalism, the BJP eventually and deliberately sidelines problems of housing, employment, farmers.