Credibility to matter for all parties in polls: Jaitley on FB

Credibility will matter the most for all parties, including the BJP, in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley warned on Thursday.

Credibility will matter the most for all parties, including the BJP, in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley warned on Thursday.

“Anyone choosing to ignore this aspect would have to pay a heavy price,” he wrote in a Facebook post. Ahead of his party getting down to finalising the LS poll candidates, Jaitley said: “The people have clearly indicated that they want credible politics. Those who choose to defy this expectation can only risk their existence.”

Saying it was “not merely the Indian middle class which is the strong opinion maker”, but also a substantial aspirational class whose level of expectations was entirely different. “They will vote in governments and vote out governments if they found them not meeting popular aspirations.”

Criticising the Congress, Jaitley claimed that it had still not learnt from its mistakes. “Despite being routed in four states, it has started the New Year with the baggage of two cover-ups: The Adarsh cover-up in Maharashtra and corruption in Himachal. Though the allegations of impropriety, corruption, quid pro quo and conflict of interest against Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh are fairly conclusive, the Congress has shamelessly decided to hold demonstrations in support of the tainted chief minister. This is defiance of ethics which can only earn the wrath of public opinion even more.”

The BJP leader held that the four assembly election results conclusively established the point. “Shivraj Singh Chouhan successfully led the BJP to electoral victory in Madhya Pradesh for the third time because of his performance, particularly his personal credibility. At any given point, his acceptability was higher than the BJP’s. Dr Raman Singh’s personal credibility, coupled with the success of his public distribution system, saw the BJP through. In Rajasthan, the Congress was marred by allegations of misconduct of its ministers and MLAs.”