‘Wave against BJP very palpable, it will lose elections’

The legislator for a record nine consecutive terms from Rampur Khas seat of Pratapgarh, Pramod Tiwari, fears that in the face of a poor show in five states of MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram, a desperate BJP could resort to tactics to further communally polarise people before the 2019 LS polls. The senior Congress leader, who is a member of All India Congress Committee, warns that the country needs to guard against such attempts by saffron party.

In an interview to K Sandeep Kumar in Prayagraj, the former UP Congress Legislature Party leader maintains that a wave against the BJP is now palpable in different states and the so-called ‘Modi magic’ is now almost a thing of the past. Some excerpts :

Having just returned from Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan, how did you read the people’s sentiments?

I found anger in all these states against BJP for failing to fulfill promises made both during the last assembly polls and the 2014 Parliamentary elections. The wave against the party is very palpable. Congress workers and leaders have worked hard and will benefit from the work that they have put in. I won’t be surprised if BJP ends up losing in four if not all five states.

In Rajasthan, people seem very upset with the CM. Even in Chhattisgarh they are unhappy with BJP and are not taking the Ajit JogiBSP tie-up seriously. For Rajasthan, even BJP president Amit Shah has said on Saturday that his party has gained quite a bit of ground in October as compared to September, in a way conceding that till October at least his party was in trouble. Rising costs of essential commodities, unemployment, corruption and failure to fulfil promises will surely haunt the BJP.

Do you think the scene could be same in UP in 2019?

BJP lost all four seats, including three Parliamentary ones of Phulpur, Gorakhpur and Kairana and one assembly seat of Noorpur in Bijnor for which elections have been held in 2018. I see a drubbing for BJP in UP in 2019 if the right alliance takes shape.

What do you mean by a right alliance?

Right alliance would be of political parties coming together to take on BJP and its allies in an effective way, aimed at stopping vote division. I am also against use of the term ‘grand alliance’ being used for coming together of parties against BJP and its allies as UPA is an alliance of 13 odd parties including just 4 to 5 big ones, while the NDA is an alliance of 30-odd ones even though many of these parties have either already left the NDA or seem set to leave the fold soon.

The Modi wave was greatly credited for success of 2014 poll win of BJP. How’s this wave doing now?

The most alarming thing for the BJP is the waning popularity of Narendra Modi. This is evident from the fact that compared to the past elections when Modi was viewed as trump card by the BJP, during these polls (of the five states) very few rallies of Modi were witnessed, as there was very little demand as compared to the past. If you see, BJP president Amit Shah too has limited himself to roadshows and TV appearances as he has realised that crowd was no longer coming to their rallies as it used to.

How do you view the economy in Modi government’s rule? Just today it has been made public that the GDP has slid to 7.1 per cent in the past quarter of July-September, the lowest in past three quarters from 8.2 per cent that was registered in AprilJune quarter. Just recently, former chief economic advisor to Modi Arvind Subramanian has said that demonetisation was a massive, draconian, monetary shock that accelerated economic slide to 6.8 per cent in the seven quarters after it against the 8 per cent recorded prior to the note ban. Even the former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has now said that demonetisation undoubtedly hurt growth. Former PM Manmohan Singh had already predicted the impact of demonetisation on the economy that has now started .