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No party can form govt without Congress support, says Deve Gowda. Then, a surprise
Addressing an election rally in support of the Telugu Desam Party at Tiruvuru in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, the JD (S) chief referred to the formation of the United Front government comprising non-BJP coalition of regional parties supported by the Congress party between 1996 and 1998.
Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda on Monday predicted the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections, but said no party would be able to form the government at the Centre without the support of the Congress.
Addressing an election rally in support of the Telugu Desam Party at Tiruvuru in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, the JD (S) chief referred to the formation of the United Front government comprising non-BJP coalition of regional parties supported by the Congress party between 1996 and 1998.
“The United Front government proved that regional parties could come to power… Now, it is the time for all the regional parties to come together again and wrest power from the BJP. The TDP president (Chandrababu Naidu) played a major role at the Centre at that time and he is playing a key role in bringing all the parties together on one platform. It is a major achievement to bring all the like-minded regional parties together,” he recalled.
Gowda described Naidu as a prospective Prime Minister of India. “Chandrababu Naidu has been bravely fighting against the misrule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has raised his voice against the misuse of the central investigation agencies and weakening of several other institutions. Naidu has all the requirements of becoming the Prime Minister of the country in future,” the former Prime Minister said.
Gowda charged Modi with weakening democracy by engineering attacks on the political rivals by central agencies. “There is an undeclared emergency in the country. Income Tax raids are carried out on the opposition parties. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s relatives were also targeted. So were the political opponents of the BJP in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal were subjected to I-T harassment too,” he pointed out.
The former Prime Minister also faulted the Election Commission for adopting what he alleged was a partisan attitude against non-BJP parties. “Never before had the EC shifted so many officials based on frivolous complaints. The general feeling among the people is that the EC was acting according to the directions of the BJP government against the opposition-ruled states,” he alleged.
Addressing the rally, Naidu said the opposition parties would file a review petition in the Supreme Court not against its direction to the Election Commission to count five per cent of slips obtained from VVPAT (Voter-verified paper audit trail) machines in every constituency.
He said the opposition would appeal for at least 25 percent VVPAT slips in every constituency. Naidu is among those filed petition for the counting of at least 50 percent VVPATs.
