Congress will come back to power at Centre: Chandy

“The Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi is confident to lead a united front of democratic and secular forces (at the Centre) and Meghalaya’s results will give boost to the party,” Chandy, who is in the state for a two-day visit, told journalists here on Tuesday.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is ruling at the Centre, is trying to divide the society and are creating more and more issues like beef controversy besides interfering with people’s rights on what to eat and what to wear.

“Look at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech inside the Parliament. While the former PM (Manmohan Singh) used to discuss on issues of the country, but Modi likes to accused and attack on the opposition leaders…all these have upset the people,” he said.

Chandy said that the Congress therefore will take the united democratic and secular forces to fight the next parliamentary elections in the country.

“We will fight out the BJP not only in Meghalaya but throughout the country as we are sure the people will accept the issues raised by the party,” he added.

The former chief minister of Kerala also exuded confidence that the Congress will retain the seat of power in Meghalaya.

“The party is fielding candidates in all the 60 seats and we are quite confident in winning and come back to power again here,” Chandy said while also lauding the chief minister Mukul Sangma for doing a job in bringing development into the state.

Asked, he alleged that the BJP, which does not have a single representative in the Assembly at present, are using power machineries including money being a ruling party at the centre, which needs to be opposed.

Attacking the BJP, the senior Congress leader said that the saffron party even after ruling the country for the past years have failed to keep their many promises made to the people.

Recalling that the saffron party had conducted lots of oppositions against the then Congress-led UPA government on various issues including price rise, he however said, “But what is the position in these four years, ordinary people are suffering with no intervention. People are left at the mercy of the profit makers.”

On the hike in petrol price, Chandy said that while the international price of petroleum has gone down, yet the people of the country are not getting any concession. “Instead of giving concession to the people of the country, the beneficiaries are the old companies.”

Asked why is the party silent on corruption especially in view of the recent chargesheet filed by the BJP against the Congress in Meghalaya, he said that corruption is one of the main issues the Congress is fighting and that there is no doubt about it.

With regards to the failure of the Congress to set up the Lokayukta in the state for rooting out corruption, Chandy while defending the party said, “But there are so many agencies. The CBI is there and lot of other departments.”

Meanwhile, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee working president James Lyngdoh however said the Congress is fighting mostly against regional political parties who are being supported by the BJP from behind.

By Our Reporter