Addressing a press conference here, Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh raised questions over outcome in Maharashtra where BJP and its allies Shiv Sena and NCP are heading for a landslide victory.
Congress on Saturday expressed satisfaction over the result of Jharkhand assembly polls, saying the party has done well in the state and that it will analyse the outcome in Maharashtra which is “completely opposite” to the expectations and “very strange”.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh raised questions over outcome in Maharashtra where BJP and its allies Shiv Sena and NCP are heading for a landslide victory.
Jairam Ramesh said somewhere “there is a conspiracy” to defeat the Congress.
Pawan Khera said BJP suffered a setback in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls about five months back and raised questions over BJP’s strike rate in Maharashtra assembly polls.
He said the Congress was concerned about its electoral transparency and will continue to raise concerns about electoral process.
“The Lok Sabha election was fought in the name of Modi ji in Maharashtra, BJP lost it. The same state gives the same BJP 132 out of 148 seats within 4-5 months. What kind of strike rate is this? …Is this strike rate possible? Democracy is our concern. Electoral transparency is our concern. Can the BJP reverse anti-incumbency? We complained continuously. Jairam Ramesh had complained about the name being deleted from the Election Commission’s website from the house of a woman BJP leader. All the leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi had complained. No answer was given,” he said.
“Whether we win or lose, we will continue to question the election process. In a country where exam papers are leaked, can we blindly trust the machines? You cannot shut us up by showing the results of Jharkhand. To date, apart from the poetry, we have not received any concrete answer from the Election Commission,” he added.
Jairam Ramesh said the setback in Maharashtra does not mean that the party will step back from its agenda including demand for caste census.
“We will definitely analyse the result that has come. But today we can say that even those who won did not anticipate that this result would come. We were assuming that we will get the mandate. The farmers of Maharashtra are angry, the working class of Maharashtra is against the government. And the atmosphere that was there in Maharashtra 4-5 months ago, the same atmosphere is there today too, we were assuming this and everyone accepted this,” he said.
“But the results that have come are completely opposite to this. But this does not mean that we will step back from our agenda… somewhere there is a conspiracy to defeat us… The result of Maharashtra is very strange, I cannot use any other word for it, it is absolutely strange,” he added.
Khera said in Jharkhand, RSS and BJP “tried to make a laboratory” in tribal areas but it was rejected.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma became their poster boy. The poster boy left no stone unturned there…The people of Jharkhand completely rejected this kind of politics and again made a working government win with a good majority. Congress performed well there,” he said.
In Maharashtra, BJP has won or is ahead in 132 seats, Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has won or is ahead in 57 seats and NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is poised to win 41 seats. The state has 288 assembly seats.
The constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a rude jolt with Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray poised to win 20 seats, Congress 16, and NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar only 10 seats.
In Jharkhand, the ruling JMM led the ruling coalition to a convincing victory. The JMM has won or is leading on 34 seats. Its allies are poised to win 22 more seats – Congress 16, RJD on 4 and CPI(ML) two. BJP is ahead or has won 21 seats. Polling was held for 81 seats in Jharkhand. This is first time since the creation of the state that an alliance has won polls after five years in power.