Congress's national spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi today said the BJP was terrified as the non-NDA parties were...

Congress's national spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi today said the BJP was terrified as the non-NDA parties were coming together ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He also claimed that the allies of the saffron party were deserting it and likened the ruling party to a "sinking ship". At a press conference here, the Congress leader said the arithmetic truth was that the BJP won elections when those were multi-cornered contests.

"We want to ensure that there is no division of votes. The coming together of (West Bengal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee and (BSP chief) Mayawati at Bengaluru for (Karnataka Chief Minister) H D Kumaraswamy's swearing-in and the alliance of the traditional rivals in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, for five bypolls are not small things. "They (BJP) are terrified at the prospect of the non-NDA parties coming together," Singhvi said.

2019 Lok Sabha polls

He claimed that the NDA allies were leaving the BJP like a "sinking ship". Replying to a query on whether the Shiv Sena, a BJP ally which has said it would go solo in future elections, would be inducted into the anti-NDA camp, Singhvi said, "I did not name any party and I am not referring to this one."  Terming the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi "arrogant", he claimed that the saffron party was not even treating its allies well.

Singhvi hit out at the BJP for celebrating being in power for four years and said the country, however, was not rejoicing. "Are these four years meant for celebration or was there a betrayal of the people? If the occasion is to celebrate the jumlas (gimmickry) of the Betrayal Janata Party, then everyone is celebrating. We are not great orators like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but we have plain facts," the Congress leader said.

Mamata Banerjee

He said the agricultural growth rate of the country, which was 4.2 percent between 2004 and 2014 (when the UPA was in power), had fallen to 1.9 percent in the last four years. "Modi's promise of doubling farmers' income by 2022 is not just a jumla, but an insult to one's intelligence. To achieve this target in 2022, the current growth rate should be 15 percent," Singhvi added.

He alleged that the BJP had junked its poll promise of giving the Minimum Support Price as well as 50 percent above the production cost to farmers after coming to power. "If one looks at the MSP for crops for 2017-18, farmers are facing losses. Only the BJP can lie with conviction and without shame," Singhvi said. The Congress leader lashed out at the saffron party's government for allowing the import of 1,500 metric tonnes of sugarcane from Pakistan, despite the country producing excess sugarcane.

"Can there be any bigger betrayal of the sugarcane farmers than this?" he asked.