With Congress exploring all options to stop Narendra Modi-led Government at the Centre, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday indicated that the party would make efforts to rally all like-minded parties after the elections to keep Modi out of power. He said that the Congress has always given the call for unity of secular forces.
Chidambaram, who addressed a Press conference on state of economy during the UPA regime, dubbed as “speculation and hypothetical” suggestion as to whether the Congress would prefer to sit in the Opposition if there is a substantial fall in its tally or prop any Third Front Government with outside support.
“This is all speculation, hypothetical. We have full faith that the UPA led by Congress will come to power. As far as uniting secular forces is concerned, this call we have given all the time. Congress is at the head of all secular forces in the country ... We have always been taking a lead position in uniting the secular forces,” Chidambaram replied to many questions on political scenario rather than on economics.
Chidambaram’s comments come after senior members of the party has echoed similar voice. Noting that ‘the tail cannot wag the body, the body can wag the tail’, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh had rejected the idea of extending outside support to a Third Front to stop Modi. There have been suggestions by several party leaders, including Prithviraj Chavan, Salman Khurshid and Jairam Ramesh, that Congress should back a Third Front if the need be to keep BJP out of power.
Chidambaram said that the party has gone into elections with the faith that the UPA headed by Congress will emerge victorious and asked the media to wait till polling for all phases are over.
“I do not share your concern that there is any general resentment with the UPA. Some sections of people want a change. That is part of the democratic churning,” he said rejecting questions on the perception that there is an anti-UPA atmosphere in the country and Congress is down in the dumps. Referring to 2004 and 2009 lok Sabha polls, he said that while predicting election results almost all opinion and exit polls and much of the media were hopelessly wrong.
Chidambaram did not agree with a questioner that good economics is essentially not good politics. “Good economics is indeed good politics. I will be unhappy if someone is going with this message that the opposite is true,” he said dubbing such perception as “frightening” if youngsters believe so.