Back from a whirlwind tour of the hot and dusty terrain of Andhra Pradesh to his own constituency Lucknow for a day’s canvassing, defence minister Rajnath Singh is confident about a substantial rise in BJP’s tally. In a conversation with TOI’s Pravin Kumar & Rajiv Srivastava, he accused the opposition parties of manufacturing poll issues out of nothing and said that Cong MP Rahul Gandhi shouldn’t have fled Battleground Amethi.
Excerpts from the interview:
You have been travelling a lot in these elections, what is your feedback from the grassroots? Issues like unemployment and inflation are being used against the BJP govt?
■ There is a huge attraction towards (PM Narendra) Modiji. ‘Satisfied’ would be a big expression, but I want to say that people have a good feeling about the performance of the govt in the past 10 years. They are happy that the country’s stature has risen and its respect has increased internationally. Social welfare schemes have reached the people at the grassroots level with full honesty. The leakage and pilferages in the beneficiary schemes which was common earlier has completely ended. People are happy with all this.
Now that three rounds are over, what are the prospects in UP? Will the tally increase?
■ Pakka badhenge (Will rise for sure). Koi duvidha nahin hai (There is no ambiguity).
Was there not a strategic failure on the part of BJP that led to the protest over candidate selection? Thakurs and several other castes are said to be unhappy.
■ This is all cooked up narrative. Sometimes it’s said Thakurs are unhappy, sometimes it’s Brahimns. There is nothing like this. Ek do logon ke naraz hone se qaum khilaf nahin hoti hai (Anger of a couple of people doesn’t reflect the sentiment of the entire community).
There has been an earlier strategy of BJP to replace candidates to neutralise their anti-incumbency. This was not seen this time.
■ Tickets are given only after assessing things on the ground. There might be some anger over some selections, but people have this common goal that the country should move forward.
Congress is using BJP’s ‘400 paar’ slogan to build up this narrative that the overwhelmingmajority would be used to change the Constitution.
■ It’s not just a slogan. They (Congress) are not able to digest our firm march towards a 400-plus goal. Since Cong doesn’t have any issue, it’s making issues out of nothing.
Rahul Gandhi has gone to Rae Bareli from Amethi. What is your take?
■ He should not have left the battleground. What do you call a person who flees the battleground?
It’s said that govt isn’t thinking about the middle class.
■ The govt is thinking about the welfare of the entire country. No section of the society will remain un touched. Development of every section will be done irrespective of caste, creed, or religion. Unless and until all are not developed, our dream of ‘Viksit Bharat’ will not be realised.
Opposition parties allege that after a poor show in two rounds of voting, BJP leaders are making the poll discourse communal.
■ We will definitely increase our tally in the first two rounds and there is no question of BJP turning the discourse communal. The beneficiary schemes which have reached to the grassroots level have not been done based on caste, creed, or religion.
Has the low turnout affected BJP, as people say mostly BJP voters do not come out?
■ Hot weather is one reason. If there is lack of excitement it is mostly in the voters of the opposition. Supporters of opposition parties are hopeless. It’s because they have not been able to make a strong alliance as they had expected.
What are the prospects of BJP in the southern states, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala?
■ I have travelled both in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The party is sure to get seats in both the states. We are getting more seats even in Andhra and Telangana.
Should the country expect one nation, one election by 2029?
This remains our commitment.
Opposition is seeing the attack on IAF convoy in Poonch as politically motivated. What is your take?
■ These allegations are baseless. Opposition parties should desist from making such comments on the issues of border security and Army martyrs.
You have said that PoK will by itself come to be part of India.
■ Yes. I made similar statements around two years ago as well.
National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah has said in reaction to your statement that Pakistan was not wearing bangles.
■ Let him react. I do not have to say anything about his reaction. It is my firm belief that the way development work has begun in Jammu & Kashmir, the country is moving forward, people everywhere want such things to happen.
