Kharge, Rahul speak to candidates, PCC presidents

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday held a ‘zoom’ meeting with the party’s Lok Sabha candidates, the PCC presidents and the Congress Legislative Party leaders in different states.

The two leaders took the feedback from the candidates and senior state leaders. They expressed confidence that the INDIA bloc was headed for a comfortable majority with at least 295 seats. AICC General Secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh also participated in the marathon meeting.

Later briefing reporters, Congress general secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh, along with Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, dismissed the exit polls saying that these have been proved wrong in the past also. He pointed out, in 2004, all exit polls predicted landslide victory for Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA and when the actual results were out, the NDA got defeated. He said, history of the 2004 General Elections is going to be repeated in 2024.

The Congress general secretary objected to the Prime Minister holding meetings with the officials ahead of the results. He observed that this was a clear attempt to influence the officers and convey them that BJP is coming back.

He also referred to the reports of union Home Minister Amit Shah calling the Deputy Commissioners/Returning officers with a clear intention to influence them.

He said, just before the elections, some policy decisions were taken, even officers were transferred and contracts were allotted in clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
He said, this has never happened in the history of India that the Prime Minister was holding meetings ahead of results and planning for next 100 days.

He said, although the party had lodged 117 complaints with the Election Commission of India, its response was not encouraging.

Pawan Khera, while apprehending some conspiracy, observed that an atmosphere was being created through these exit polls. He warned that the entire country was watching as to why such an atmosphere was being created through such numbers.