Congress will return to power at Centre: Ex-Meghalaya CM

After his party's victory in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Tuesday exuded confidence that the Congress will return to power at the Centre as well.

"People will throw out this BJP government and that has been indicated in this mandate of the people. It definitely indicates the trend and it reflects writing on the wall," the veteran Congress leader said.

"...in spite of all that they have been trying to do...the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) went and announced some populist schemes to woo voters in Rajasthan on the day when the Election Commission was supposed to announce the elections," he said.

Noting that people rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because of its anti-people policies, the Leader of Opposition in the Meghalaya Assembly said: "They have subjected the people of the nation to agony by bringing insensitive policies starting with demonetisation and all tall promises made just to get votes and come to power. People have found out and I must say that the results showed complete rejection of the anti-people policies."

On Congress being decimated in Mizoram, Sangma said: "Let us not link Mizoram and Meghalaya. Meghalaya is always a state with fractured mandate and it was a different thing in 2013 where the people gave the mandate to the Congress but that too not absolute majority.

"Here also, these people came to power by making tall promises and the same situation is already prevailing in the state. You ask anybody across the state who thought that these people would probably do what they have promised, but now the people will tell you something else. With tall promises they thought that they can get votes and get away."

On the BJP's Congress-mukt Bharat slogan and the Congress' failure to retain power in Mizoram, Sangma said: "In some places you have defeat and bad outcome, and this is expected in democracy. But if you look at Mizoram and try to compare with other states, it is a different ball game and you have to know what exactly was prevailing in Mizoram..."

--IANS

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