New Delhi, 30 Apr: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said that while the BJP was seeking votes in the Karnataka Assembly polls in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress had adopted the PM\u2019s \u201cvocal for local\u201d slogan and was raising issues of the people of the state.
\nIn an interview with PTI, Ramesh said Karnataka, after four years of the BJP rule, needs \u2018Vitamin-P\u2019 in which the P stands for \u201cperformance\u201d of the Congress and not \u201cpolarisation\u201d of the BJP.
\nUsing armed forces\u2019 terminology, Ramesh said the Congress is not worried about the \u201ccarpet bombing\u201d campaign strategy of Prime Minister Modi and other senior BJP leaders as it has enough \u201canti-aircraft guns\u201d to deal with it.
\nThe more the carpet bombing campaign the BJP indulges in, the more clearly it indicates its \u201cdespair and desperation\u201d, the Congress general secretary in-charge communications said.
\nRamesh, who is a star campaigner for the party, said the Karnataka polls were about the BJP\u2019s \u201cthreats\u201d versus Congress\u2019 governance guarantees.
\nHe claimed that the Congress would get a \u201cclear majority\u201d that would render \u201cOperation Lotus\u201d totally unnecessary.
\nOperation Lotus is the term used by opposition parties to describe what they call \u201cpoaching\u201d of MLAs by the BJP to topple state governments.
\nAsked about reports of former chief minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar looking to outdo each other for the post of CM, Ramesh said, \u201cThis time around, the dissidence in the Congress is at a minimum. There are only a few rebel independent candidates and many of them are withdrawing.\u201d \u201cIn any case, the dissidence in the Congress is nothing as compared with the dissidence in the BJP which has lost its former chief minister, deputy CM, members of the national executive and many other national, state and local level leaders,\u201d Ramesh said.
\nHe said five top Congress leaders \u2013 party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar \u2013 would probably cover the 224 constituencies among them during the campaign.
\n\u201cSo, I think we are presenting a united front and this I think is the impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Some people criticize the Bharat Jodo Yatra that it would not pay electoral dividends but I think the yatra is giving electoral dividends as it gave a sense of solidarity and a sense of purpose to the Congress,\u201d he told PTI over the phone from Karnataka where he is on the campaign trail.
\nToday the story of Karnataka politics is the \u201cdissidence and disunity\u201d in the BJP, not in the Congress, he stressed.
\n\u201cRight now everybody is focused on getting the Congress back to power. We are nor focussing on individuals. This is not a beauty contest for individuals, this is a choice between political parties, a choice between competing ideologies, a choice between competing visions for Karnataka\u2019s future,\u201d Ramesh said.
\nNoting that the Karnataka electorate is very wise and knows whom to vote at which level, the Congress leader pointed out that it was not a vote to elect the prime minister but a vote to install a government in the state.
\n\u201cI think we have taken the PM\u2019s slogan more seriously than he has himself \u2013 \u2018vocal for local\u2019,\u201d Ramesh said.
\nHe said this time the Congress campaign has been very strategic and focussed on \u201cvocal for local\u201d.
\n\u201cThis is not a national election, it is an assembly election, and I think the BJP has tried to make the prime minister the issue. They are asking for votes in the name of Narendra Modi. What we have been saying is that you are electing MLAs, you are electing the party which will appoint a CM. This is for an engine in Bengaluru not an engine in Delhi,\u201d Ramesh asserted.
\nThis whole double engine argument of the BJP is \u201cbogus\u201d, particularly in Karnataka because 94 per cent of revenues generated for the state are its own or its share of central taxes which is constitutionally mandated, he said, adding that this is not a vote for a \u201cdouble engine\u201d.
\n\u201cThe BJP\u2019s double engine is a bogus one, it is an engine of \u2018garam hawa\u2019 of economic growth, creating the illusion of economic growth, on one hand and the other engine of social polarization and divisive politics. The Congress is the only party that internalizes the double engine \u2013 the double engine of economic growth that is sustainable and equitable on the one hand, and the other engine of social harmony,\u201d he said.
\nSo the Congress\u2019 is the real double engine, Ramesh stressed.
\nOn the number of seats the Congress was likely to get, Ramesh said he did not wish to give a number but was confident of a clear majority that would render \u201cOperation Lotus\u201d totally unnecessary.
\n\u201cIn Chikkamagaluru district, where I am campaigning, we have only one assembly seat, but this time we are headed to get three or four out of a total of five seats,\u201d Ramesh said.
\nHe claimed that there is a \u201cvery strong current\u201d in favour of the Congress and a widespread sentiment for change.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t agree with the assessment that it\u2019s going to be a hung verdict. I think it is going to be a clear majority for the Congress. I think the type of campaigning the BJP is doing is just about polarization and harking back to divisive issues with which the people are fed up. You can\u2019t do this over and over again,\u201d he added.
\nOn Kharge\u2019s \u201cpoisonous snake\u201d remark, Ramesh said the party chief has clarified that remark, as well as the context in which it was made.
\n\u201cBut what Mr. Basangouda Patil Yatnal said about former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was simply unacceptable. What do you make of the Union home minister (Amit Shah) coming and telling people that \u2018if you vote for the Congress you will have communal riots\u2019. What do you make of the BJP chief coming and saying that \u2018if you vote for the Congress, the blessings of Mr. Modi are not going to be there\u2019,\u201d he said.
\nThe people who have dragged the campaign down to this level are Home Minister Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the prime minister himself, he alleged.
\nVoting will take place in the state on May 10 and the results will be out on May 13. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 30 Apr: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said that while the BJP was seeking votes in the Karnataka Assembly polls in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress had adopted the PM\u2019s \u201cvocal for local\u201d slogan and was raising issues of the people of the state. In an interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-215544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}