Congress will not come to power in next 20 years, predicts Athawale

Vijayawada: Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said the Congress party would not come to power again at the Centre in the next 20 years.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Sunday, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah emerged as strong leaders in the country. He said that Rahul Gandhi resigned to the AICC president post after understanding the weak position of the Congress. Rahul lost the election in Amethi, he recalled.

"There is no scope for the Congress to come to power for the next 15 to 20 years. The SC community is fully supporting Narendra Modi," he said. Athawale, who is the president of the Republican Party of India, said that former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu committed a mistake by quitting the NDA.

He left the NDA over the Special Category Status even though the Centre made it clear that SCS would not be accorded to any State. Since Naidu launched a campaign against Narendra Modi, the people of the State voted him out of power, he opined. The YSRCP supported the Bills introduced in the Parliament.

"However, the BJP-led NDA has a full majority in the Parliament and it does not need the support of YSRCP," he said. Stating that there is 17.08 per cent Scheduled Castes population in Andhra Pradesh, the Union Minister said that 2,215 atrocities cases were registered in 2017, 2,232 atrocities cases in 2018 and 843 cases have been registered so far in the current year. The Union Minister said that 977 inter-caste marriages were held in AP during 2018-19.

He said that the Republican Party has supported the abrogation of Article 370 to Jammu and Kashmir. "The revocation of Article-370 will lead to the establishment of industries in J and K region, which generates huge employment. Eighty per cent of people in J and K are supporting abrogation of Article-370," he said. Earlier, Athawale visited the Republican Party of India local office here.