Mumbai: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Friday said his party is ready for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Congress would welcome anybody willing to go with it in its fight against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Patole added.
Congress is fully prepared for 2024 elections
The Maharashtra Congress chief made the statement at a press conference at Akola. Talking about the situation in Maharashtra, where the Congress is in alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he said, “There is no proposal from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar to join the alliance. We are ready to discuss it with Ambedkar.”
“Congress is fully prepared for the Lok Sabha elections. The party has also decided its candidate for the Akola Lok Sabha constituency. The party nominee from Akola will definitely win the election,” he said. If anyone comes with Congress to fight against BJP, we welcome them, the former Lok Sabha MP said.
Patole calls BJP 'anti-famers'
Patole hit out at the BJP for inducting leaders from other parties, and said the saffron party was not concerned about the future of unemployed youth in the state. “The government is only supporting crop insurance companies, not farmers,” he alleged.
“The BJP government is anti-farmers. As soon as agricultural produce is sent to the market for sale, the prices are lowered making it hard for the farmers to get a good price. Due to BJP's anti-agricultural policies, crops like onion, soybeans, paddy, cotton, pulses etc are fetching a very low price, leading to increase in farmers suicides in the state. Ever since the BJP has come to power, they have brought bad days for the farmers,” Patole said.
'BJP left farmers in lurch'
“The BJP government has left the farmers in the lurch. There is a drought situation in the state, there is a demand for water tankers since September but the government has not yet declared a drought.The Congress party will protest in every district to raise the farmer's issues, the party will also ask questions to the government during the winter session. The BJP came to power by lying and forgot all the promises made to the people as soon as the elections were held. The BJP is a party that only knows to give slogans but now people are fed up with them. Congress is the party that works with all the social groups of this country. The Congress governments in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka are working in the interests of the farmers, youth, women and the poor,” he added.
Patole also raised other issues
The Congress leader also claimed that there was a shortage of one lakh teachers in schools across Maharashtra.
"We will defeat the BJP government at the state and center with the blessings of the farmers," he said. "Congress party will protest in every district to raise the farmers' issue. The BJP has further complicated the issue of reservations, Fadnavis cheated Maratha, Dhangar and OBC community."
