Party will gain from pro-poor policies of UPA govt: Charan Das Mahant
15 Nov 2013 11:20 PM GMT
Two national parties – Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are main players in the state and both the parties have fielded their top leaders in the state to draw voters towards their parties.
The state, during the first phase poll, has seen rallies of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressing Congress workers. While the Congress has fielded its top leaders to get back the state back to it, BJP is trying to organise as much as rallies possible by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Millennium Post caught up with Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress president Charan Das Mahant, who has been busy in the state after being appointed the Pradesh Congress chief by the Congress party’s central leadership after the party lost almost its entire leadership during a Naxal attack in May this year.
Mahant, who starts his day at 7 am in the morning and remain busy beyond the midnight working for his party to come back to power in the state, looked tired after the day’s hectic schedules when we caught with him in the state capital.
On being asked what is the chances of his party coming to power in state, he said that he has toured the entire state and has met people who are completely dissatisfied with the performance of Raman Singh-led government. He said that the BJP government has been cheating people and this time his party would form the government in the state comfortably.
On being asked that the BJP has been winning the state for the last two elections and it is claiming to form the government for the third time, Mahant said this time the situation is completely different in the state and people have become fed up with the present government. He also hopes to gain from the pro-poor policies of his party-led central government.
He said that the rallies of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had drew huge crowds and was a very successful rally, whereas the BJP rallies were not drawing people. He said that his party would do good in every region of the state and particularly in Bastar region, he was confident of getting huge number of assembly seats.
He attacked the state government on law and order situation, crime against women, corruption and failure of the government to provide security to his party leaders who were killed in a Naxal attack in May.
‘The state government has completely failed to provide security to the people of the state. It did not pay attention to the security of our party leaders and did not provide proper security to them and because of this, our party had to face the pain of losing popular leaders of the state during the naxal attack,’ he said.
Mahant conceded that there might have been certain issues in the Bastar region for the party that it had not done that well as expected, but this time the party has made extra efforts in the region and it would reflect once the poll results are declared.
‘We have a vision for every problems of the state and we have talked about them in our election manifesto. Like wise we also have plans for the Naxal-hit Bastar region. We would make sure that they come back to the mainstream and we would support them in getting rehabilitation and employment. We would invite them for talks and take care of their grievances. We would ensure that innocent youths are not misguided,’ said Mahant.
On being asked that BJP prime ministerial candidate Narenda Modi has addressed few rallies in the state and would hold few more before the second phase polling and that is he a factor in the naxal-hit state, Mahant replied in negative. He said ‘Modi is not a factor at all in Chhattisgarh’ and added that every Congress rally in the state is showing them that they are going to win the battle this time after having lost the last two assembly elections in the state to BJP.
On being asked that if his party comes to power, will he be the chief minister candidate or somebody else from the party, Mahant said that this would be decided by the party leadership and not by him.
The state, during the first phase poll, has seen rallies of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressing Congress workers. While the Congress has fielded its top leaders to get back the state back to it, BJP is trying to organise as much as rallies possible by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Millennium Post caught up with Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress president Charan Das Mahant, who has been busy in the state after being appointed the Pradesh Congress chief by the Congress party’s central leadership after the party lost almost its entire leadership during a Naxal attack in May this year.
Mahant, who starts his day at 7 am in the morning and remain busy beyond the midnight working for his party to come back to power in the state, looked tired after the day’s hectic schedules when we caught with him in the state capital.
On being asked what is the chances of his party coming to power in state, he said that he has toured the entire state and has met people who are completely dissatisfied with the performance of Raman Singh-led government. He said that the BJP government has been cheating people and this time his party would form the government in the state comfortably.
On being asked that the BJP has been winning the state for the last two elections and it is claiming to form the government for the third time, Mahant said this time the situation is completely different in the state and people have become fed up with the present government. He also hopes to gain from the pro-poor policies of his party-led central government.
He said that the rallies of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had drew huge crowds and was a very successful rally, whereas the BJP rallies were not drawing people. He said that his party would do good in every region of the state and particularly in Bastar region, he was confident of getting huge number of assembly seats.
He attacked the state government on law and order situation, crime against women, corruption and failure of the government to provide security to his party leaders who were killed in a Naxal attack in May.
‘The state government has completely failed to provide security to the people of the state. It did not pay attention to the security of our party leaders and did not provide proper security to them and because of this, our party had to face the pain of losing popular leaders of the state during the naxal attack,’ he said.
Mahant conceded that there might have been certain issues in the Bastar region for the party that it had not done that well as expected, but this time the party has made extra efforts in the region and it would reflect once the poll results are declared.
‘We have a vision for every problems of the state and we have talked about them in our election manifesto. Like wise we also have plans for the Naxal-hit Bastar region. We would make sure that they come back to the mainstream and we would support them in getting rehabilitation and employment. We would invite them for talks and take care of their grievances. We would ensure that innocent youths are not misguided,’ said Mahant.
On being asked that BJP prime ministerial candidate Narenda Modi has addressed few rallies in the state and would hold few more before the second phase polling and that is he a factor in the naxal-hit state, Mahant replied in negative. He said ‘Modi is not a factor at all in Chhattisgarh’ and added that every Congress rally in the state is showing them that they are going to win the battle this time after having lost the last two assembly elections in the state to BJP.
On being asked that if his party comes to power, will he be the chief minister candidate or somebody else from the party, Mahant said that this would be decided by the party leadership and not by him.
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