AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, in charge of UP, tells Sanjeev Acharya that his party will not accept less than 30 Lok Sabha seats from SP in UP.
By Sanjeev Acharya
Is it true that you master minded the closeness of the Samajwadi Party and Congress?
This is not true. I have not done anything. I was not involved in it.
But the buzz is that your close relations with Amar Singh helped bring the two parties together.
See, I am distinctly related to Amar Singh but we are on different political footings. I don’t discuss politics with him. We are not politically close to each other. His experience is in the field of glamour, Bollywood, corporates and television, media, etc., while I work with Dalits, minorities, backward classes and farmers.
It is said that you drafted the letter of condolence on behalf of Rahul Gandhi when Amar Singh’s father passed away?
Baseless rumour. Why would I draft a letter for Rahul Gandhi? He has his own staff. I am not aware of any such letter.
You are general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh. Now that the Congress and Samajwadi Party are almost allies, would there be seat sharing in UP?
The discussions with Samajwadi Party have not started yet regarding any future political alliance. Possibilities are there that both parties can reach to some understanding for seat sharing. We have identified those seats where we have good chances of winning the election and we will definitely field our candidates on those seats.
Samajwadi Party sources are saying that they would not give you more than 19-20 seats. Are you satisfied with this number?
I already said no discussions, neither official nor unofficial, have taken place between the two parties. So far as the number of seats is concerned, we have identified 30 seats where we have strong and winnable candidates. We would demand these 30 seats, no less than that.
Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party emerged very strong after their victory in the UP Assembly elections. It is said that her new political strategy is bringing success to her party. She is on the offensive more than ever, claiming that nobody can stop her becoming prime minister. What is your take on this?
Mayawati and her party got success in the UP Assembly elections because they provided effective opposition to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, not because of any other reason. She effectively opposed the incumbent government and got the benefit of the anti-incumbency factor which was on a very high scale. So far as her claim is concerned, everybody in this democracy has the right to aspire for any post, it is for the people to decide whom do they want for overall development of the country. The prime minister should have acceptability nationally. He or she must have vision and experience and offer a prospective team.
Do you think Mayawati can affect the political situation in forthcoming assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan?
I don’t think so. I told you that her success in UP was due to different reasons, not that her ideology is spreading or getting popular. In any of these states, if the Congress continues to follow its own ideology vigorously then there is no threat. BSP is not really any factor in Madhya Pradesh. I know it because I was chief minister for ten years.
You talked about MP, it is reported very often in the media that senior leaders in the state are not supporting state chief Suresh Pachauri due to personal reasons. Because of that, the party is unable to put up a united show against the ruling BJP.
It is not correct. We are all together and working under the leadership of Pradesh Congress chief Suresh Pachouri and Legislature Party leader Rahul Singh. Congress is united and I have no doubt that we will be able to defeat the Shivraj Singh government there.
Workers and leaders of the Congress party in MP say in private and also public that if the Congress high command had projected Jyotiraditya Scindia as chief ministerial candidate in MP, that would have really helped the Congress, as Scindia has his own charisma?
It may help the Congress, but it is not the policy of the Congress party to project a chief minister in any Assembly election.
But many leaders, including you, advocated that Rahul Gandhi should be projected as next prime minister in the coming general elections.
Rahul Gandhi, as I already replied earlier, has all qualities and potential required to become the prime minister of the country. I have been working with him and I am sure he is the leader.
That means your party will contest the next Lok Sabha polls in the leadership of Rahul Gandhi?
Sonia Gandhi is the Congress president and chairperson of the UPA. We are going to fight the elections under her leadership.
What about L.K. Advani being projected as prime minister in waiting? What do you think about him and his claim?
See, there is nothing wrong with him or anybody, whosoever wishes to become prime minister, because we are a democratic country. But the age factor is against him. He is too old to be Prime Minister, besides, he has lost his credibility among political parties and also in his own party. He has contradicted himself so often that nobody takes him seriously now.
Just go through his book, and also his statements in the last four-and-a-half years, and you will come to know how much he contradicted himself on so many issues.
His stature is nowhere near that of Atal Behari Vajpayee. It would be better if he realised his position himself.
What is your assessment about the electoral impact of the Amarnath yatra controversy? Don’t you think that your party has provided this issue on a platter to the BJP? Because BJP leaders are not only happy to get this issue but are very confident that they will be able to polarise the masses the way they did on the Ram temple movement.
I don’t agree with this view that BJP will be able to polarise the masses using the issue of Amarnath Yatra the way it did on Ayodhya. The issue has raised the emotional temprature in the Jammu region, but the VHP’s call for a nationwide Chakka Jam was a big flop.
The Antony committe’s recommendations on revamping electoral strategy suggests that candidates be announced at least a few months before elections and responsibility be fixed for sticking to the timetable for poll preparations. Is the report being implemented?
The Congress president is herself monitoring how to implement the suggestions. Every general secretary is being summoned and I have also given my presentation and also the progress report regarding Uttar Pradesh, of which I am incharge.