Senior Congress leader and former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Tuesday said that the victory of the Congress in three out of five States that went to Assembly elections indicated complete rejection of the BJP’s anti-people policies.
“It was a rejection of the BJP’s anti-people’s policies. They (BJP) have subjected the people of the nation to agony by bringing insensitive policies starting with demonetization and all tall promises were made just to get votes to come to power. So people have found out, and I must say that the results showed complete rejection of the anti-people policies,” Mukul Sangma, who is also the Opposition Leader in the State Assembly, said on Wednesday.
Congress won in three big States, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, but failed to retain power in Mizoram, and could not do well in Telangana.
To a question what does the results indicate for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the former Meghalaya Chief Minister said, “It definitely indicates the trend, and it reflects writings on the walls.”
Whether he is confident that the Congress would bounce back to power in 2019, Mukul said, “Yes, people will throw out the BJP Government and that has been indicated in this whole mandate. In spite they have been trying to do all they can, where the Prime Minister went and announced some populist schemes to woo voters in Rajasthan on the day when the Election Commission was supposed to announce the elections.”
“He (Prime Minister) announced so many populist schemes after knowing that people will reject them (BJP) and trying to catch the last straw. Look at the promises made in Madhya Pradesh. You can fool some people sometime, but not all people all the time. The BJP has been engaging in politics of lies and sometimes trying to whip up people’s sentiments at the last moment. We could see the desperation and this reflects the ground reality across the nation,” said Mukul Sangma.
Mukul Sangma further said: “These people (BJP and others) came to power by making tall promises but the same situation is already prevailing in the State.”
“You ask anybody across the state who thought that these people would probably do what they have promised, but now the people will tell you something else. With tall promises, they thought they can get votes and get away. It is a good thing for the nation because from the way it happened, people will have reasons to believe that democracy was under threat. These very mandates ultimately give hope to everyone across the nation. The people of the country know how to response to a given situation and make a decision for the larger good of the nation,” he said.
On the BJP’s Congress-mukt Bharat slogan and Congress failure to retain power in Mizoram, the former Meghalaya Chief Minister said, “In some places you have defeat and bad outcome, which is expected in democracy. But if you look at Mizoram and tried to compare with other states, it is a different ball game because you have to know what exactly was prevailing in Mizoram, and how it was.”