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Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Friday said that their campaign for the Lok Sabha elections started with Rahul Gandhi's criss-cross Bharat Jodo Yatra after Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the general poll schedule tomorrow (Saturday, March 16) at 3 pm.
Speaking to ANI on the poll body announcement and the party preparations of the party for the big-stakes battle, the Congress leader said, "Our preparations are really good. Our campaign to raise relevant issues among the public started with Rahul Ji's Bharat Jodo Yatra." "We also elected a new party chief reaffirming internal democracy in the party. Like-minded parties that came together to form an alliance (INDIA bloc) to raise current issues will give good leadership...More candidates of our party will be announced soon," he said. On the ruling party's slogan "Abki baar 400 paar', he said, "It is from the Bharatiya Janata Party. They want to show that they represent the government. They can give any slogan. There was perhaps a guarantee of one or two crore jobs annually. So by that logic, it should have been 20 crores. Leave aside the jobs. Six-seven crore people have been unemployed in the country". "They (BJP) were claiming to bring prosperity to every household," he said, adding, "Ask people what is the condition of their household budget." Leaders of various opposition parties joined together to take on BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. However, the bloc suffered a body blow after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was at the forefront of the bloc, joined hands with the BJP-led NDA. Political parties have already begun announcing their candidates for the general elections. BJP has so far released two lists of candidates. Congress has also released two lists of candidates for the polls. Meanwhile, the Election Commission on March 14 uploaded data on electoral bonds on its website as received from SBI. Future Gaming and Hotel Services and Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd were among the top donors to political parties. Various petitions were filed before the top court challenging amendments made to different statutes through the Finance Act 2017 and Finance Act 2016 on the ground that they have opened doors to unlimited, unchecked funding of political parties. (ANI)
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