• Thursday, March 28, 2024

Politics

Congress leader rules out own party winning 300 seats in 2024 election

Ghulam Nabi Azad (ANI Photo)

By: Shubham Ghosh

VETERAN Indian National Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday (1) ruled out the prospects of his party winning 300 seats in the 2024 general elections.

Speaking on the reversing the decision of the Narendra Modi government on the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Azad, who served as the chief minister of the union territory (previously a state) said in a rally in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district that either the country’s Supreme Court can take such a decision or the opposition Congress has to come to power with 300-plus seats but he doesn’t see that happening.

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The 72-year-old leader, whose tenure as the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, concluded in February this year, hoped that his party would win more than 300 seats in the 540-plus-member-strong Lok Sabha or lower house of the parliament.

“Only Supreme Court can decide on Article 370. Besides the apex court, only the ruling government can do it. The current government has abrogated it, how will they do it? And I cannot assure you that Congress will win 300 seats in the 2024 elections. I pray that Congress wins 300 seats but I don’t see that happening now,” he said.

Earlier this week, Azad had appealed to political parties to create an environment in the state that the people start believing that polls can be held and a political process can be carried out.

“I am not going into party politics now. I am not speaking against any party now because this is not the environment in the state right now where one party speaks against the other.

“Rather I would request that all political parties, instead of abusing each other, should create such an environment in the state that the people here start believing that the election can be held and the politics could be done,” Azad said.

“Usually, union territories are upgraded to state. But in our case, a state was downgraded to UT. It’s like demoting DGP to a post of thanedaar (SHO), CM to MLA, and Chief Secretary to Patwari. No wise man can do this,” the Congress leader said.

The Modi government abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 and bifurcated it into two union territories. The government has assured that the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be restored at an appropriate time but local political parties of Jammu and Kashmir have not been convinced.

The Congress won only 44 and 52 seats in the 2014 and 2019 national elections, both of which were swept by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

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