NEW DELHI, March 5: As the Election Commission set in motion the electoral process, BJP expressed confidence that it will be the preferred choice of people when votes are counted on May 16, while the Congress said it will prove wrong opinion polls which have ruled out a third term for it.
“We are ready for elections. We are sure of a clear majority on the basis of the popular support our campaign and our prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi are getting,” BJP President Rajnath Singh said.
Union Minister Kapil Sibal said there is unity in the country and all citizens are treated equally only when Congress is in power.
Referring to numerous opinion polls which have declared BJP as the front-runner and a defeat for the Congress, he said similar surveys in 2004 had termed BJP as favourites.
In 2009 too, he said opinion polls had not predicted a win for the Congress.
Taking a dig at Modi’s campaign theme of a Congress-free India, he said what the BJP leader meant was a “Modi-India” which will be “disastrous” for the country if his rule in Gujarat is any indication.
Sitaram Yechury of CPI(M) said the nine-phase polls are “rather long” and will be a long haul for political parties and people.
He also expressed his party’s unhappiness over increase in election expenditure limit, saying it along some other measures curbing different modes of reaching out to people will adversely affect smaller parties which are financially not strong.
Citing the instances of paid news and paid opinion polls, he said the EC has not made any clear directive on them and hoped that it would do so in the coming days.
Speaking about the upcoming polls, Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that BJP always tried to create media hype that it would win the elections.
“In 2004, India Shining campaign….They almost had distributed their portfolios. Same thing happened in 2009 also. BJP is great at creating hype. They are experts in creating a hype in the media that they are winning,” he said.
Union minister Manish Tewari said the General elections signify a clash between two competing vision of India. He claimed that a vision of pluralism and secularism is represented by the Congress while a “sectarian, communal and a fundamentalist” vision was encapsulated in the ideological vision of the BJP.
NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal predicted a downfall of the Congress. Punjab Chief minister Prakash Singh Badal claimed that the Congress would suffer a crushing defeat after which the party would disintegrate.
His son and the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal also claimed that people wanted to see Modi as the Prime Minister.
Another NDA ally Shiv Sena expressed confidence that the coalition would do well in Maharashtra. Party leader Sanjay Raut said Maharashtra would contribute the maximum number of seats to the NDA tally. (PTI)
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