New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 20 (PTI) Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday said the opposition alliance could win the 2029 Lok Sabha elections only if it builds its campaign around projecting Rahul Gandhi as its leader.
In an exclusive interview with PTI Videos in New Delhi, Chennithala, who was actively involved in Congress organisational politics at the national level before returning to Keralam, described Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi as a visionary leader capable of giving the country a new direction.
“The Opposition should start campaigning for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections by projecting LoP Rahul Gandhi as its leader. Only then can we win. He is a leader who has a vision. He is somebody who has connected with the people of India,” Chennithala said.
Citing the Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Gandhi from Kanyakumari to Srinagar in 2023, as an example, the Congress Working Committee member said, “He has enthused crores and crores of people in this country. So definitely, his leadership will give a new direction to the country.” Regarding the Congress Working Committee meeting held here on Wednesday, Chennithala said the focus was mostly on the “growing anger of the people against the ruling NDA government” in the country.
“The Central Government is very unpopular,” he opined, adding that the youngsters of the country were expressing their dissatisfaction with the ruling government in many different ways.
“What we can see is a growing dissatisfaction among the youth with the Central Government’s policies, whether it is what happened in Patna, New Delhi or Jharkhand,” Chennithala said.
He said the youth had lost faith in the examination system under BJP rule.
Blaming the ruling BJP for pushing “privatisation”, he referred to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chaatron Ki Goonj’ campaign, under which the Leader of the Opposition is set to address students in 800 cities.
The decision was announced after the CWC meeting on Wednesday.
The ‘Chaatron Ki Goonj’ campaign was launched by Gandhi shortly after the alleged NEET paper leak scam surfaced on May 3, following which the NTA cancelled the NEET examinations on May 12.
On the alleged police brutality against protesting students in New Delhi on July 20, Chennithala said that while water cannons could be used in exceptional circumstances, the problem was the reported use of pellet guns and firing by police personnel.
“Our Union Home Minister Amit Shah is not ready to address this incident yet, though,” Chennithala alleged.
When asked whether the BJP could potentially replace the Left Democratic Front as the main opposition in Keralam in the future, Chennithala dismissed the possibility, saying, “Keralam is a secular state, and the people of Keralam will never accept the BJP.” On the Vande Mataram controversy, the Keralam Home Minister said Congress preferred to stick to its 1937 resolution.
“Congress was always clear about its stance on Vande Mataram. We are only willing to sing the first two stanzas of the National Song, and we have never sung it fully. Even the National Anthem had more stanzas than what we see today, but it was also tailored short. Likewise, the CWC had taken a decision back then on the National Song, and we support the same decision today,” he said.
On BJP National President Nitin Nabin’s reaction to the CWC’s stance on Vande Mataram in an X post, in which he called the Opposition the “new Muslim League”, Chennithala said the BJP was just trying to create religious divisions.
Reacting to a query on ‘Operation Toofan’, an anti-drug campaign launched by the Home Department in Keralam, and the Centre’s stand on the initiative, Chennithala said that while the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were speaking against the drug menace, they needed to move forward with a plan.
“We are carrying out intelligence and information sharing among the southern states, and have sought the assistance of central agencies. It is the Centre which should take up the initiative and provide all assistance to the states in the matter,” he said.
