Congress-led Oppn ‘very much possible’ post LS polls: Tewari

New Delhi: Reacting to the former party leader Kapil Sibal’s remark, Congress leaders Manish Tewari and Pramod Tiwari on Monday stressed that a Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is ‘very much possible’ after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Stressing that opposition parties must unite on the basis of ideologies to oust the ruling BJP-led NDA, former Union minister Tewari said that the UPA would come to power for a third time and oust the incumbent government which has been in power since May 2014.

“The Opposition can give an alternative to this country. So it is important that opposition unity must be based on ideologies and values...claims that opposition leaders can’t sit together and there is friction between them are baseless. When opposition unite on the basis of ideologies, then UPA-3 can definitely be formed,” Tewari said.

On the other hand, Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari described 2024 as a fight between two ideologies – one that UPA believes in Mahatma Gandhi, and the other (NDA) in Nathuram Godse – Gandhi’s assassin.

“Today we are here to save democracy and the Constitution...if the BJP stays in power, they will make every state like Manipur, and create unrest on the basis of caste and religion. So there must be an alliance against BJP...what is there in the name (PM face), ideology is the same and that’s what matters,” he said.

Notably, just ahead of few days of opposition party’s meeting scheduled on June 23, Kapil Sibal, who has switched his side from Congress to Samajwadi Party, had said that UPA-3 could be a ‘reality’ in 2024 if the opposition parties have a ‘commonality of purpose and that they move forward with the mindset that there needs to be a lot of give and take.

In comparison to other regional parties, the Congress has its government in four states such as Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, while it is an key ally in three states (Bihar, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu).