New Delhi, Nov 23: The Congress on Saturday described the Maharashtra poll outcome as "unexpected and inexplicable", and claimed that the level-playing field in the state was disturbed in a targeted manner as part of a conspiracy to defeat it.
The opposition party, however, hailed the poll results in Jharkhand, saying the people of the state have categorically rejected the "politics of polarisation" peddled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance swept the Maharashtra polls, decimating the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) with a landslide victory, while the INDIA bloc retained Jharkhand, voters in both states giving the parties in power an emphatic thumbs up.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asserted that his party may have lost the polls in Maharashtra but it would continue to raise the issues that it has been raising since the parliamentary polls.
"On Maharashtra, there can be no two ways about it that in a targeted manner, the level-playing field, a phrase that the Election Commission often uses, was disturbed. The election results are unexpected, very surprising and inexplicable," Ramesh said.
"Some people are analysing the poll results of Maharashtra and saying this is a victory of development, and an NCP leader has stated that the Congress party's fake narrative has been rejected by the people of the state. This is wrong, there should not be any doubt that the agenda we had during the Lok Sabha polls -- economic inequalities, social polarisation, protection of the Constitution, a caste census and the Modani scams -- these issues are as important and we will continue to raise those," he added.
The people of Maharashtra have not rejected this, the Congress leader said. The Congress will analyse the results but even those who won did not expect this, Ramesh said.
"We were expecting that we will get the mandate. Farmers were upset and everyone believed that we will get the mandate. The results are absolutely opposite to this, but this does not mean that we will deviate from our agenda," he said.
"We will re-energise our organisation on the basis of this agenda. We have gotten a jolt but this jolt was given. There was a conspiracy to defeat us," Ramesh claimed.
He said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had a word with AICC Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala and in the next 24 to 36 hours, there will be a meeting where various issues related to the poll results will be discussed.
Hailing the Jharkhand Assembly polls verdict, Ramesh congratulated the people of the state for showing the country a new way and "categorically rejecting" the politics of polarisation.
"(Assam Chief Minister) Himanta Biswa Sarma, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, (Union minister) Shivraj Chouhan, Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- what all did they not say? The entire election was about one issue and one word -- 'ghuspetiya' (infiltrators). Attempts were made to create fear but people have given a decisive verdict," he said.
"This is a positive message for the whole country that politics of polarisation can be defeated and we will defeat it," the Congress leader asserted. Addressing the presser, Congress's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said as the principal opposition party, "we find it our responsibility to keep raising issues of transparency in elections".
"The Lok Sabha election was fought in the name of Modiji in Maharashtra and the BJP did not do well. The same state gives the same BJP 132 out of 148 seats (contested by the saffron party) within four-five months. What kind of a strike rate is this? Is this strike rate possible? Democracy is our concern," Khera said.
"Whether we win or lose, we will continue to question the election process and raise issues of transparency. In a country where exam papers are leaked, can we blindly trust the machines? You cannot shut us up by showing the results of Jharkhand. To date, apart from poetry, we have not received any concrete answer from the Election Commission," he said.
(Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
