New Delhi: The Congress claimed on Friday that due to its positive Lok Sabha poll campaign, “nyay” guarantees and priority given to protecting the Constitution, the INDIA bloc is going to get a “clear and decisive” mandate on June 4, when the election results are scheduled to be declared.
A day after the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls came to an end, the opposition party said while it focussed on justice for people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP campaigned on the basis of words starting with “M” — mandir, mangalsutra, machli (fish), mutton, Musalman, mujra and meditation.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said his party made 117 complaints of model code violations by the BJP, including 14 against Modi’s campaign, to the Election Commission (EC).
“We respect the EC but sadly, impartiality was not seen during the course of the campaign,” he said.
Ramesh, along with the Congress’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera and AICC social media department chief Supriya Shrinate, released a compilation of 272 questions that the party has asked Modi in the last 72 days. The compilation of the questions is titled “72 Days, 272 Questions, 0 Jawab,? Bhaag Modi Bhaag”.
Addressing a press conference along with Khera and Shrinate, Ramesh said the Congress’s campaign was positive and a result of the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
He recalled that Gandhi announced the five “nyay” of the Congress — yuva nyay, nari nyay, kisan nyay, shramik nyay and hissedari nyay — in Guwahati on January 23.
In Ranchi on February 5, the former Congress chief talked about “hissedari nyay” and the party’s guarantees under it, Ramesh said.
On February 23 in Ambikapur, Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced the guarantees under “kisan nyay” and on March 7 in Rajasthan’s Banswara, the two leaders released the “yuva nyay” guarantees, he pointed out.
On March 13 in Dhule, Gandhi announced “nari nyay” while Kharge announced the “shramik nyay” guarantees in Bengaluru, Ramesh said.
He also recalled that Gandhi carried a copy of the Constitution to his public meetings and stressed the Congress’s guarantee to protect social justice, get a caste census conducted and remove the 50-per cent cap on reservation.
“We believe that due to our campaign, ‘panch nyay, pachchees guarantee’, and the priority we gave to protecting the Constitution as stressed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, we are going to get a clear and decisive mandate on June 4,” Ramesh said.
Khera claimed that the Congress’s campaign derailed Modi’s “propaganda” and the prime minister did not tell the country what his government has achieved.
While the Congress presented its views and campaigned on the basis of justice, Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaigned on the basis of words starting with “M” — mandir, mangalsutra, machli, mutton, Musalman, mujra and meditation — he said.
“After all this, now the prime minister has gone to meditate. The man who diverted people’s attention for 10 years is now meditating…. While we were talking about justice, Modi was talking about taps and buffalo theft,” Khera said.
“When the BJP gave the slogan of bagging more than 400 seats, its intentions became clear before the country. Many BJP leaders said they would change the Constitution, but Congress leaders launched a campaign to protect the Constitution. For us, protecting the Constitution and democracy is more important than elections,” he said.
Shrinate claimed that the BJP’s campaign on social media was old and repetitive with no traction among youngsters, while the Congress’s social media campaign was a hit among them.
Citing data to buttress her point, she claimed that the Congress had 613 million (61.3 crore) views on YouTube as compared to the BJP’s 150 million (15 crore).
Shrinate also claimed that the average likes for the Congress on Instagram were 1.21 lakh compared to the BJP’s 26,945.
She said the average likes on Twitter for the Congress was 2,500-3,000 and for the BJP, it was 260-300.
