Strongly refuting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s accusations that the opposition have no Prime Ministerial candidate to lead the government, if they voted to power and they ould share the Prime Minister’s seat each one for a year, the Congress at the fag end of the campaign for the last phase, asserted that the INDIA bloc will get a “decisive mandate” in the Lok Sabha polls and may take even less than 48 hours to decide on its prime ministerial pick.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asserting that it stands to reason that the party which gets the maximum seats in the alliance will be a “natural claimant” for its leadership. In an interview he exuded confidence that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will get seats “well above” the 272-mark needed for a majority in the Lower House.
Ramesh also said that when the INDIA ‘janbandhan’ parties will get the people’s mandate, then some NDA parties may join the coalition and the Congress high command will have to decide whether to include them in the alliance or not.
Referring to the political situation on the ground after six phases of polls, Ramesh said, “I don’t want to get into numbers but all I am saying is that we (INDIA bloc) will get a clear and decisive majority. 273 is a clear majority but it is not decisive. When I say clear and decisive, I mean well above 272 seats.”
He claimed the 2004 result when the Congress won the polls to form an alliance government despite the BJP’s ‘India shining’ campaign, will repeat itself in 2024. He also claimed that the Congress will make “handsome gains” in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra.
“We will improve our position in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. In totality, we are headed for a 2004 type of a situation, ‘bees saal baad’,” he said. Ramesh said that in Uttar Pradesh also the Congress will make gains and the BJP cannot improve on its 2019 tally of 62.