Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha by-election in Wayanad. In the Karnataka by-election, all three seats went to the Congress. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP broke away a Congress MLA and took him with them, as a result a by-election had to be held and the BJP lost that seat, we won there, one of the two went to us. Similarly, in the by-elections in Punjab, Rajasthan and Kerala, we got one seat at some places and two seats at other places. In Jharkhand, where RSS and Bharatiya Janata Party tried to build a laboratory in tribal areas, Himanta Biswa Sarma became their poster boy. The poster boy left no stone unturned there. He tried to build a laboratory there and he thought that he would succeed, where Yogi Adityanath ji came as poster boy number two and he raised such slogans in Jharkhand and the campaign was run in such a retarded way that he himself raised slogans against the central government. He said that infiltrators have entered Jharkhand! They have been under your government for ten years. Jharkhand does not even share its border with any other country, but infiltrators still came! So, was Adityanath ji plotting against Rajnath ji, plotting against Amit Shah ji?

The people of Jharkhand rejected this kind of politics and made a working government win again. They made it win with a good majority. Thinking that Congress will remain in single digit, many of you were very worried. I can understand your worry. Congress presented its performance there very well in front of you. Victory in Jharkhand itself gives happiness, but this kind of politics lost in Jharkhand. This increases the happiness of this victory even more.

Now we come to Maharashtra because you people are showing less of Jharkhand on TV, as if Jharkhand has been detached from India like Manipur. That is why I wanted to speak a little more on Jharkhand. The pattern that we have been seeing in Maharashtra for the last few years, the same pattern was repeated there. I will give you a statistical data which is a shocking one. Lok Sabha election was an election fought in the name of Modi ji. Maharashtra defeated BJP in that. Meaning, it did not want Modi ji to become the Prime Minister. The same state gives 132 out of 148 seats to the same BJP within 4 to 5 months. Are you able to understand this strike rate, what kind of strike rate is this? Either it should be accepted that Maharashtra is against Modi ji, will you accept it? The same pattern was there in Haryana too. The same Haryana which defeated Modi ji in Lok Sabha, makes BJP win in the Assembly elections. Sowas there an atmosphere against Modi ji in these states or is it being created in every state?

It is a matter of common sense that four months ago, BJP lost the election fought in the name of Modi ji and four months later, it is not Modi Ji’s election, it is the state government’s election. BJP’s strike rate is 132 out of 148... Is this strike rate possible? If this strike rate is possible, then is it not a matter of concern for Modi ji that his party is now losing elections in his name? It is something to think about. This is a matter of concern for them. Our concern is democracy, our concern is electoral transparency, our concern is that after so many years, the government was formed through the back door, can the anti-incumbency be reversed for the BJP after forming the government? Can BJP win 132 out of 148 seats? So, what had happened in the Lok Sabha elections? We made continuous complaints. Jairam Ramesh ji had complained about the name being deleted from the Election Commission website by entering the house of a woman BJP leader, all the leaders of Mahavikas Aghadi had also complained, we have not yet received any response from the Election Commission. You people can say this and you are saying it too, you are saying it on social media as well that Jharkhand has won. Then why don’t you say that there is something wrong in the election process.

Jharkhand, Jammu-Kashmir, Assembly by-elections, whose names I mentioned, should be made to win… we should be allowed to win by giving a level-playing field there, with the hope that after that our mouth will be shut in Maharashtra. Sorry to say this but…our mouths will not be shut. Where the Bharatiya Janata Party has to take huge advantage, all the tricks are played there. At other places, a level-playing field is allowed to run. Where there is a level-playing field, the results of those places are in front of you. So, whether we win or lose, we will keep raising questions on the electoral process. In a country where children’s exam papers get leaked, can we blindly trust machines, the Election Commission and the electoral process? You tell me...tell us even one exam in a state where the paper has not been leaked in the last ten years.

So, when we repeatedly talk about the electoral process, talk about the transparency of EVMs, talk about 99 percent battery, then we talk about it only to make the electoral process more transparent and democracy stronger. You cannot shut our mouth by showing the result of Jharkhand, we will not keep quiet. We will continue to speak to the Election Commission again and again. I gave you the example of Pune. There is a list of constituencies in which red and green marking is being done. BJP leaders say that red marking means that these names should be removed from the voter list. We gave the list, but no reply came. No answer has been given till date about the 99% battery.

So, will the elections be held like this and our mouths will be shut in a very clever way? In Haryana too, we raised our voices, civil society and many NGOs raised the issue that how the voting percentage has increased. It is increasing every hour and that too after the elections are over. How is this happening? There is no answer. Five years ago, did you ever come across this issue that how is this voting percentage increasing on its own? Yesterday, EVM machines were found in the car of a BJP leader in Nagpur but there is no answer. Is keeping quiet an answer?

There can be no second opinion about Maharashtra that this level-playing field, which is used repeatedly by the Election Commission, that is why we are using the same word, has been spoilt in a targeted manner. This Maharashtra was deliberately spoilt in a targeted manner.

The results of the Maharashtra elections are unexpected for us. It is very surprising for us and I think it can also be said that it is inexplicable. Many people have been analysing since morning – development has won, this is inexplicable. Our agenda in the Lok Sabha elections, the issues we raised were economic inequality, social polarisation, protection of the Constitution, caste census and these Modani scams. These issues are as important today as they were when we raised them during the Lok Sabha elections. Our leaders raised them, the Congress President raised them, Rahul ji raised them. Caste census, 50 percent reservation limit for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC categories, Modani scam, all these issues will remain and we believe that the people of Maharashtra have not rejected them.

Therefore, as the oldest Party of this country, the biggest Party of this country, the Party which has been in power for 54 years and 7 months in this country and as the main opposition Party, we understand our responsibility and we will shoulder it because we are concerned about the coming generations, we are concerned about democracy. We also consider it our responsibility to conduct transparent elections in this country.

One thing is certain that there is no change in the agenda of the Congress Party. We will continue to raise the social issues that we have raised. We will continue to raise the economic issues that we are raising. The Modani issue will remain, we will continue to demand caste census; we will continue to take the steps to protect the Constitution, we will continue to mention it… but only after a full analysis will it be known that this strange result that has come in Maharashtra, I cannot use any other words for it, some people are saying – we won the election because of this, we won because of that… the Prime Minister has said that it is the victory of development. So, I understand all this that after the election results, this was not the language that was there before the election results. So, this result has been arrived at by making a targeted approach. But our courage has not weakened, we have definitely lost, but victory and defeat keep happening. We will fight, keep fighting, keep raising the issues of the people and we have to work more strongly in the organization.

News based on Press Briefing by Shri Jairam Ramesh, MP and General Secretary (Communications), AICC, and Shri Pawan Khera, Chairman, Media & Publicity (Communication Deptt.), AICC, on November 23, 2024