‘Pawar is tallest leader, remains quintessential Congressman’

Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan is the sole Congress candidate in Satara district. Vinod Sharma caught up with him in the middle of his campaign to retain his Karad (South) seat in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls. Edited excerpts:

Karad is a seat the Congress has never lost. Will you keep up the tradition?

We’d certainly maintain the winning trend. The dismal five-year record of the state government (led by the Bharatiya Janata Party) is helping us in amplifying popular discontent. This time, the fight here is between the Congress and the BJP. The rebel Congressman who stood second last time isn’t in the fray. His son’s contesting but that isn’t the same thing. Many NCP leaders have joined my campaign. We paid the price in 2014 for contesting against each other. This time we are together.

How confident are you of exploiting the BJP’S anti-incumbency in the face of its strong nationalistic pitch that can overwhelm other issues?

We are trying to focus on the economy, plummeting growth rate, joblessness, bank frauds, farmers’ suicides and all. But that campaign is yet to pick up. The other theme is the ruling party’s agenda to finish the Congress and the NCP. After (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief) Mohan Bhagwat’s advise, they aren’t using Amit Shah’s “Congress-mukt” slogan. But the underlying theme, remains unaltered. All coercive means are being used to wipe out the Opposition. It’s what the CM (Devendra Fadnavis) calls Sam, Daam, Dand, Bhed... they’re buying up, threatening and putting our leaders behind bars.

Unlike in 2014, this time there’s an Ncp-congress alliance in Maharashtra. Will that improve your performances?

We expect to win the entire Satara district and the Lok Sabha seat where there is a by-election caused by the defection of the sitting NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosale to the BJP. There’s a fight in a couple of assembly seats but we expect to win most of them. Satara, historically, is a Congress-minded area which now is an NCP stronghold. It was one of the three districts besides UP’S Ballia and Bengal’s 24-Parganas that declared Independence from the British. A parallel government was formed. That’s the history and the political culture of Satara. The late YB Chavan hailed from Karad and was the founder of modern Maharashtra. A major factor that’ll ensure our victory is the money laundering case brought to coerce (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar. That has caused a huge backlash. Maximum public outrage is in this part of western Maharashtra comprising Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur.

How big is the Sharad Pawar persona for the alliance?

He is the tallest leader today by age, seniority and political experience. He would remain a quintessential Congressman who, like Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool (Congress), has left the party but hasn’t abandoned the Congress tag. We’ve worked together in these elections in deciding candidates, dividing seats and running the campaign.

What other issues dominate?

The BJP is desperate to make the nullification of Article 370 (that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir) the main point of debate. Amit Shah is repeating the arguments he made in his speech in Parliament. The people aren’t swayed by the propaganda. It isn’t an issue that touches lives here. It’s a ruse to divert attention from the government’s failure to address livelihood problems. There’s a feeling that they have lost control of the economy. Withdrawing ~1.76 lakh crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) funds was like selling family jewels to run the household. We in the Opposition are trying to focus on the economic crisis that impacts all people.