Must refrain from making 'arbitrary declarations': Congress to Chidambaram

The Congress Party on Sunday downplayed the remarks made by P. Chidambaram for declaring Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'the most dominant political leader', and asked the former union finance minister to examine more "clinically" before making "arbitrary declarations".

"Views expressed by senior leaders are part of their expression; we only respect the mandate of the people. If, there were such a big mandate in favour of the Prime Minister then what about Goa, Punjab and what about Manipur? These are issues people will ask before making any arbitrary declarations; one must examine the matter more clinically," Congress leader Tom Vadakkan told ANI.

Echoing similar sentiments, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja argued that the reason Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was able to get the majority was because of the anti-incumbency factor.

"If you look at the results of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, there is an issue of anti-incumbency. People voted against the incumbent government everywhere. So people were dissatisfied with the government. One should analyse the election results objectively and without any bias and prejudices and one should not rush to make sweeping judgement and conclusions," Raja told ANI.

Earlier today, Chidambaram said that the BJP's electoral wins in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand reflected that Prime Minister Modi "is the most dominant political leader".

"The victories in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand have re-confirmed that Mr Narendra Modi is the most dominant political leader," Chidambaram tweeted.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) witnessed an unprecedented victory with 321 seats in the assembly elections contested for 403 seats, while the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance bagged 54, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 19 and others bagged 18 seats respectively.

In Uttarakhand, the BJP won with a clear majority with 57 seats in the 70-member assembly, ousting the Congress led by Harish Rawat.

The Congress managed to win just 11 seats.