Congress: I.N.D.I.A. is intact, will cross 272 at Centre
Says PM corruption fight weak after poll bond disclosures
NEW DELHI: The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has breathed new life into the I.N.D.I.A. bloc which decided to hold a “maha rally” at the Ramlila Maidan on March 31 to “safeguard the country’s interests and democracy,” alliance partners AAP and the Congress said on Saturday.
“The top leadership of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc will participate in the event,” Gopal Rai, AAP’s Delhi convener, said, adding, "Democracy and the country are in danger.”
Rai said: “It is not only about Arvind Kejriwal. The Opposition is being threatened. Either they use money to buy people or scare them by using the ED and the CBI. If someone refuses to bow, they get them arrested under false cases,” Rai alleged.
Meanwhile, the Congress said the I.N.D.I.A. bloc would cross the halfway mark of 272 in the coming Lok Sabha elections. The bloc was intact despite Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s “somersault” and Trinamul Congress supremo deciding to contest all the seats in West Bengal. The Congress pointed out that Banerjee had not disassociated herself from the bloc. The alliance still had the Aam Aadmi Party, NCP-SP, Shiv Sena-UBT, the DMK and the JMM. The Congress would tie-up with the Left parties in West Bengal and had an 11-party alliance in Assam allied with the Samajwadi Party in UP.
All alliance leaders had joined Rahul Gandhi’s yatra in the states, except Mamata Banerjee who stayed away due to West Bengal-specific reasons.
The Congress said that in the electoral bonds case, Rs 4,000 crore of bonds donated to the BJP were directly linked with Rs 4 Lakh crore of contracts for the donors.
“There is ample evidence to show that the corruption is a 'khokhla (hollow) plank' as far as Modi is concerned... "'Chanda do, dhanda lo (quid pro quo)' is becoming obvious, after the electoral bonds issue," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in an interview.
Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi has been “extraordinarily successful” in infusing new energy in the organisation and all have been forced to look upon him differently after the Bharat Jodo Yatras.
Arvinder Singh Lovely, the Congress' Delhi unit chief, alleged that the Opposition parties were not being given a level playing field and highlighted the freezing of his party's accounts and the arrest of a Chief Minister. "The March 31 'maha rally' will not only be a political one but a call to save the country's democracy," he said. "Democracy is in danger. Our leader Rahul Gandhi is fighting to save democracy.”