Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and state Congress chief Kamal Nath has said that the BJP government will not last beyond the impending bypolls to the 24 vacant seats in state assembly. Congress, he said, will win 20-22 of the seats.
Speaking at a press conference, held through video-conferencing, Kamal Nath said that the betrayal of the 22 ex-MLAs of Congress and the BJP’s role in toppling the Congress government, were clear to the people of the state.
“The voters are very different now. They are much more aware of things and they give their verdict silently. You can gauge their mood on social media and if you talk to the people of those constituencies. So, I am very confident of the comeback of Congress,” Kamal Nath said while responding to a question whether he will unfurl the national flag in MP on Independence Day (meaning whether he will be back as chief minister).
ALSO READ: Chouhan may have to deal with discord in his party before byelections
Opening up for the first time on failure of Congress leadership and his own, to prevent the dissension in the party that led to collapse of the government despite his long political experience, Kamal Nath said, “I certainly have political experience of 40 years, but I did not have the experience of the politics of deals and temptations and also personal ambitions. It was surprising for me. I was talking constantly to the MLAs even in Bengaluru and they told me of the temptations and the deals, so I told them to do whatever they deemed right,” the ex-CM said.
He also said that the point that the Congress MLAs left because they were unhappy was totally wrong as he had all the records of communications with them and how many of their works were done. “Will they accept that they went out of temptation and as part of deal? They have to say something. But I know how much time I gave them despite being personally running the government with ministers and not outsourcing it like the previous [BJP government],” he said.
Kamal Nath made it clear that there was no difference of opinion between him and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh and denied making the statement that Digvijaya gave him the impression that the MLAs will not leave, as attributed recently to him in a section of media. He said that both Digvijaya and he had never thought that the Congress members could succumb to such temptations or deals, but they were proven wrong. “My relation with Digvijaya Singh is as before and it will continue as before. I do not need any new team,” Nath said.
Though he answered all political questions, he made it clear that, as of now, the priority was not politics but the situation arising out of COVID-19 pandemic. He attacked the BJP government for mismanaging the crisis and said that unless visionary strategy is adopted, the state will get pulled into darkness.
He said that the biggest failure of the government was to ensure adequate testing for the infection. “What kind of testing is being done, why are results coming after more than 10 days? In these 10 days, even negative persons will get infected in the hospitals and those infected might die. Also, how much testing is being done in rural and semi-urban areas, given the influx of outsiders in the form of returning migrant labourers. They are going by the philosophy that if there is no testing, there will be no cases. This is disastrous,” Kamal Nath said.
The ex-chief minister strongly rebutted the BJP claim that his government did not take any steps to prevent the crisis. He said that steps were taken right from January end when there were only few cases in the country. All through February, different meetings were held and orders issued to deal with the situation, though the pandemic was declared only on March 12. He listed out a series of date-wise steps to prove his point.
“And all this time, BJP and Shivraj [Singh Chouhan] kept making jokes about COVID and called it our misplaced apprehension. They were only targeting collapse of the government and now they are trying to put the blame on us,” he said.
He added that if Congress government was in power, the emphasis would be on procurement of emergency medical equipment like ventilators, preventive gear like PPE kits and more testing kits and facilities.
He also rebutted the allegations of BJP about his government not fulfilling promises of farm loan waivers, saying that loans had been waived for over 27.22 lakh farmers in two phases and he has records of the same.
Kamal Nath said that despite the crisis, both prime minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were resorting to hold trick of making populist announcements. “But the point is about the strategy to implement these announcements. It is about how relief will be provided to farmers, small traders, labourers and small businesses. How will be the economy that has totally collapsed, will be rebuilt?” he asked.
He said that that the priority now was to restart economic activities and provide immediate relief to different sectors trough tax waiver and rebates, deferment of loan and interest payments, timely payment of wages and salaries. There should be particular steps like US and Europe are taking. Only talks will not help,” he said.
