Deputy leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma is a man enjoying the confidence of 10, Janpath and is part of the coterie of Congress national vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
A suave and soft spoken Sharma, who hails from Himachal Pradesh, looked composed while evaluating his party’s defeats in the recent Assembly elections.
“Winning or losing polls are part of the game”, he said in his inimitable style. “If we are down today we will bounce back tomorrow,” he said while talking to The Pioneer during his visit to lucknow
Excerpt of the interview.
Q-Results of the recent Assembly polls in five states have sent warning signals for Congress. It seems the party’s base is shrinking.
A-This goes without saying that results of recent elections have gone against us. We were not able to retain power in Assam and Kerala. This is bad for us but it does not mean that we are out of the political spectrum. Winning or losing polls are part of a democratic process. We lost election today but will wrest those states again. The party has shown resilience earlier and will show it again.
Q-But how do you evaluate …
A-You cannot judge a party through its capacity to form government only. If you scan the results, we have done well percentage wise. We were able to win seats in those constituencies where we had lost earlier. As I said, winning and losing polls are part of democracy. The BJP had once just two MPs in the lock Sabha and now it is in power. It is wrong in the part of media to say that Congress base is shrinking. Yes, we have lost elections and that’s a truth, we admit that.
look in Gujarat Congress swept the local body elections last year – especially in Panchayat. Congress had wrested 23 out of 31 district panchayats and 113 out of 193 taluqa panchayat. Our vote share has increased at the village level and this is a good beginning for the Congress as we have wrested seats from BJP. This proves ups and down in politics is part of the game.
Q-Many more states will go to polls in near future. Punjab is crucial for Congress.
A-That’s true Punjab is very crucial for us. The AAP has made inroads there and it can create problems for us. But we will be able to manage it. And then we have elections in Uttar Pradesh too.
Q-In your speeches, you often say that BJP had won the 2014 polls because of its marketing skill. The man instrumental for this hype – Prashant Kishore – is now hired by Congress. Can we expect the same marketing proficiency during UP pollsIJ
A-(Smiles). Congress is not in the same league of the BJP. You know the amount of money BJP had spent in 2014 elections. We do not have resources of that magnitude. So – please do not expect that kind of hype in our election campaign.
Q-What would be the Congress’ stand on GST because recently Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the government wants consensus on this Bill and if the government fails to reach it, it would go for constitutional remedy.
A-The GST should be passed through consensus. The government has spoken to us but no consensus has been reached. We have some reservations and the government should clear that before putting it to vote. It is a fact that this GST is a brain child of Congress. When UPA wanted to pass it, the BJP played a spoil sport. The most astonishing part is Narendra Modi, who was then Chief Minister of Gujarat, had called GST Bill as anti-constitutional. He should first apologies to the nation for his statement. He had written a letter to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for disbanding GST and now he is a big advocate of this Bill. This is double standards of the BJP leaders.