The country will not witness any free or fair election if the Modi government returns to power in 2019, senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Wednesday.
Mr. Chavan was speaking at the launch of the party’s third phase of Jan Sangharsh Yatra against the policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Tuljapur in Osmanabad district of Marathwada region.
Stating that the BJP got only 31% of the total vote share in the 2014 general elections, Mr. Chavan called upon like-minded parties to unite against the ruling NDA in the forthcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
“The BJP could win with a clear majority only because the votes of the Opposition parties were fragmented. But whenever the opposition has come together, as in the important by-polls in Uttar Pradesh this year, the BJP has lost spectacularly,” Mr. Chavan said, reiterating the call for a mega-coalition of Opposition parties to dislodge the Modi government.
“If this dictatorial government [Narendra Modi-led NDA]comes to power, there won’t remain any vestige of democracy nor will the Constitution bequeathed upon us by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar be safe,” he said.
As part of the outreach campaign in this phase, Congress will be covering 27 Assembly constituencies in the Marathwada region, culminating in Aurangabad on November 1.
Targeting the State government for the prevailing drought situation, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan questioned why the Devendra Fadnavis government was vacillating in declaring drought given the acute water-scarcity afflicting Maharashtra.
“How many farmers have to give up their lives till this government introduces drought-relief measures,” he asked, adding that the BJP government was busy indulging in word games instead of announcing emergency measures to tackle the looming crisis.