Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh chief and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar today said the Congress can not dislodge the BJP from power till 2024, as it can not counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image as a "non-corrupt" leader.
Ambedkar, who is the grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar and whose stock in the Maharashtra politics rose recently when he gave a call for a shut-down over the Koregaon-Bhima violence, was speaking at an interaction organised by the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh here.
The BJP will opt for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and several state Assemblies including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in December 2018, he predicted.
"Prime minister Narendra Modi may be errant, but his image as a non-corrupt leader is sill intact," he said.
"Modi, in his speeches, talks about the Congress's tainted past, which cannot be countered. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has a good image, but not other leaders of the party. That's why it cannot take on the BJP. The Congress cannot beat the BJP till 2024," Ambedkar said.
However, if the Left parties take an initiative to form a grand alliance against the BJP, the political scene can change, he said.
"The Left can match Modi's image as non-corrupt. Their credibility is intact. If that happens, the BJP will be reduced to the numbers which the Congress has today," he said.
The results of Karnataka Assembly elections will decide the next government in Delhi, he said.
Ambedkar, a former MP, also announced that he will contest the next Lok Sabha election.
Maharashtra will witness a multi-cornered contest as the BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP will fight the elections separately, he said.
The young generation does not believe in caste consolidation, he opined.
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