‘Mahagathbandhan won’t get electoral gathbandhan’
Aggressively critiquing the proposed unified front, or ‘Mahagathbandhan’, of opposition parties in the run-up to 2019 elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that it reflects “political opportunism”, and “has failed in the past and will fail in the future” because people want a “strong and decisive government”. This will, he has argued, not succeed in creating a ‘gathbandhan’ of the electorate.
At a time when there is speculation about the government’s key agenda for the next elections, Modi has also said that his campaign platform for 2019 will be “all-round development, quick development, and development for all’.
With this, Modi has indicated the two central planks of his 2014 elections -- strong, decisive government and vikas -- will be his themes once again.
In a written interview to Hindustan Times, responding to a wide range of questions, Modi spoke about the political challenge in 2019, defended his government’s record on the economy, and articulated his government’s broad worldview on relations with major powers, particularly the US, Russia and China.
When asked about the prospects of a grand Opposition alliance, which observers consider as a powerful challenge because it can prevent the fragmentation of the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vote, Modi said that after a long time, a “performing, strong and stable” government was in power in Delhi.
“People have seen the benefits of such a dispensation. People also have a very bitter experience of coalition governments in the past that were burdened by coalition politics of compulsions. These groups that are being formed, Mahagathbandhan, or whatever they may call it, cannot create a gathbandhan of the electorate,” he said.
Modi claimed that a “non-ideological alliance of desperate and disparate groups” was merely opportunism. “People want a strong and decisive government that is sensitive to their
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