Polls, a race to conserve democracy: Prithviraj Chauhan

Mangaluru: The Karnataka elections is not an ordinary elections, “it has a significant impact on all the elections that are lined up in 2023 and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, what happens in Karnataka elections will have a bearing on all the elections” said former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Pritviraj Chauhan.

Replying to a question asked by the Hans India on Friday at a press conference Chauhan said “It is a landmark election in all respects, it will determine emergence of an elected dictatorship in 2024 against truly federal democracy, right from the 1995 assembly elections in the states the Congress party got more votes than the BJP but the party was not able to convert into seats for various reasons, which means the Congress party has a great sway among the voters”

‘The fact remains that the BJP had been coming to the ruling position by subversion of democratic process, it has happened in Madhya Pradesh, Goa Karnataka and Maharashtra where brutal use of money power has taken place. This subversion of the democratic process has led the country into a situation where the 2024 general elections be a fight between the elected dictatorship tendencies by the BJP against the democratic federal system followed by the Congress party. If the BJP is not defeated by the people in the Karnataka elections on 10 May it will be difficult to conserve democracy in not just Karnataka but also in the country in future’ Chauhan asserted.

The Congress leader queried why Rahul Gandhi was evicted from the membership of the Lok Sabha . ‘Was it because he asked questions about the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Adani group’ he wanted to know. How the enormous money power was playing a role in subverting the democracy is a question which has to be pondered over by the electorate before it is too late. “There could be a time when there will be no elections in the future if we do not correct our course,” he appealed to the electorate. In another danger, the BJP had been foisting Chief Ministers who can handle corruption. “This was evident in the choice of Basavaraj Bommai as the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Bommai has come from another party when there were other people in that party who could have been made a Chief Minister, why Bommai? Because he was able to hone corrupt practices? The 40 per cent charges by Santhosh Patil who killed himself due to a debt trap, even the Lingayat Mutts were not spared the Dingaleshwar swamiji of Balehonnur mutt had also accused the BJP state leadership of corruption” Chauhan said.