BJP's graph diving, INDIA bloc to form govts in Maharashtra, Jharkhand: Pilot

Senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Thursday claimed that the BJP’s favourability is declining as people are fed up with its “policies” and “misuse of agencies”, and predicted an INDIA bloc victory in the upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly polls.

“The BJP’s graph in the entire country is declining and the INDIA grouping will win the upcoming elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. I have been to Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and there is a one-sided wave prevailing in that state,” Pilot told reporters at the residence of Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitendra (Jitu) Patwari. Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha was also present.

Pilot arrived in Bhopal to campaign for the Congress in the 13 November by-poll in the Vijaypur assembly segment of Sheopur district, bordering Rajasthan.

The former Rajasthan deputy chief minister accused BJP leaders of using "low-level language" during the poll campaign, referring to comments like “snatching mangal sutra” and “taking away your buffaloes” by PM Narendra Modi during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the recent “batenge toh katenge (if divided, we will be finished)" by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Congress is focused on slogans of positivity like ‘padhenge toh badhenge (if we study, we progress)', he said. “This type of culture should be promoted. People in the country are now fed up with the BJP over misuse of power and Central agencies, and polarisation,” he said.

Pilot also slammed the BJP over the arrest of two chief ministers — Hemant Soren in Jharkhand and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi — and accused it of exploiting Central agencies for political gains.

He said former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, current party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc are working towards strengthening the country and the results of the by-polls in MP will leave their mark on the 2028 statewide assembly elections.

Besides Vijaypur, a by-poll will also be held on 13 November in the Budhni segment, earlier represented by former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Votes will be counted on 23 November.

The results of the by-polls in various states, including Wayanad in Kerala from where Congress general-secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is contesting her maiden Lok Sabha polls, and the assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra will be satisfying for the Congress and the outcomes will have a direct impact on future elections, Pilot said.

In Vijaypur, the Congress has fielded senior tribal leader Mukesh Malhotra. The by-poll was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. He is contesting the by-poll on a BJP ticket. Rawat had won from Vijaypur six times as a Congress candidate in 1990, 1993, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2023.

Responding to a question about the BJP’s allegation that Congress and other parties encouraged infiltration in Jharkhand in a planned manner, Pilot asked, “Who is responsible for protecting the country's borders? They are levelling allegations by shirking their own responsibilities.”

He alleged that the BJP raises issues like ‘one election, one nation’, cows and gods before elections just for votes and never talks about its performance in areas such as industrialisation, jobs, roads and water.

Asked about the culture of freebies and former CM Chouhan's popular Ladli Behna Yojana scheme, Pilot asked why, if the scheme was so good, was Chouhan removed as CM.

On the one hand, Pilot said, the BJP describes freebies as revdi and on the other, it wants to take credit for providing free ration to 80 crore people in the country. “When Congress and other parties want to help deprived sections of society, it is termed revdiyan, despite the fact that when they do such things they call themselves annadata (provider) and daandata (giver),” he quipped.

Pilot said though there is a double-engine government (same party at the state and Centre), unemployment is still rising in MP and farmers are dying by suicide. “Who will stop it?” he asked.

Answering a question about Jammu and Kashmir, he said the state (currently downgraded to Union Territory) should get full statehood and added that the elections were held there on the directives of the Supreme Court and not by the BJP-led Central government.