Maharashtra Result Surprising, Inexplicable For Us: Congress’ Jairam Ramesh
Reacting to the Maharashtra assembly election results, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh said the poll result is surprising and inexplicable for the party.
In the counting today, BJP-led ruling Mahayuti alliance has secured more than 225 out of 288 constituencies with the ruling alliance is set for a landslide victory against the opposition Maha Vikas Agahadi (MVA). The MVA was leading in more than 50 seats, as the major regional parties in the state appears to show their supremacy following the recent splits.
Jairam Ramesh added that the Maharashtra outcome is brought through targeted conspiracy to defeat Congress and added that the morale of the party is not down and will use the outcome to strengthen the party.
“We won and lost today but Congress’ agenda will not change; will keep raising issues of caste census, ‘Modani’,” the Congress leader added.
He also ascertained that the Assembly election results are opposite to ground situation which persisted in Maharashtra a few months ago.
“We will keep raising questions on electoral transparency, and the level-playing field was disturbed in Maharashtra. Maharashtra assembly poll result surprising, inexplicable for us,” he said.
The party also expressed satisfaction over the INDIA bloc victory in Jharkhand and thanked the people of the state for defeating the politics of polarisation.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today, party General Secretary in charge Communications Jairam Ramesh and chairman of the Media and Publicity Department Pawan Khera said that the results were not only surprising for them (the Congress) but even those who have won the elections.
While saying that the party will definitely analyse the results, Ramesh said, “we can say that even those who won did not anticipate that this result would come”.
He observed that the farmers of Maharashtra were angry, the working class of Maharashtra was against the government and the atmosphere in the state was the same as five months ago, when BJP fared badly in the parliamentary elections. “But the results that have come are completely opposite to this”, he remarked.
At the same time, the Congress general secretary asserted, “but this does not mean that we will step back from our agenda of caste census, economic disparity, protection of the Constitution and the investigation of Modani scams”.
Alleging that there was “some conspiracy somewhere to get us defeated”, he said, it was a targeted manipulation to deliver targeted results with each senior leader of the Congress, the NCP (SP) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) being targeted for the defeat. He said, while the non-entities from the BJP won, prominent MVA leaders were made to lose. “What some people say as micro-management was the manipulation at the ground level”, he remarked.
Jairam Ramesh said that all Opposition parties will have to come together against manipulation in the electoral process, including the use of EVMs, which results in manipulated mandate.
Replying to a question Pawan Khera said, in Jharkhand where the INDIA bloc got a level playing field it won. He said, the Congress/INDIA wins wherever it gets the level playing field.
While expressing surprise over the results, he pointed out, the Lok Sabha election was fought in the name of Modi and BJP had lost in Maharashtra then.
Khera specifically mentioned the Dharavi assembly segment, where the Congress candidate won by a margin of over 24,000 votes. “They (the people of Dharavi) have given their verdict”, he remarked, while suggesting that they had rejected the tender given to Adani for redeveloping the place.
Replying to a question on Jharkhand, the senior Congress leader said, the party will follow the coalition dharma there.
In the results announced today, some prominent candidates of the undivided NCP and Shiv Sena has lost the election, while many new comers gained edge in several constituencies. Many of the senior leaders from the MVA lost the election as the state saw a landslide victory in favour of one alliance or party after a long time. Congress has also seen a drubbing in the state which had given 13 seats for the Grand Old Party in the last summer.
