AAP leader Raghav Chadha has predicted a “historic and decisive” win for the INDIA bloc in Thursday’s Chandigarh mayoral election, and billed the INDIA vs BJP contest as the perfect curtain-raiser for the Lok Sabha election due in April/May. “This will be an election where, for the first time, it will be INDIA vs BJP. After this election, the scorecard will be INDIA 1 – BJP 0,” he declared.
“INDIA will fight the Chandigarh mayor elections with all its strength, and register a historic and decisive victory. Don’t consider this an ordinary election. This will be the first time it will be INDIA vs BJP (and) after this, the scorecard will be INDIA 1, BJP 0,” Mr Chadha told reporters this morning.
“We think the clean sweep on January 18 will be the beginning for the 2024 Lok Sabha election…”
Mr Chadha vowed that INDIA – a bloc of over two dozen opposition parties, led by the Congress, relying on a united front to stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP from an unprecedented third term – would “liberate the people from the dictatorial and useless government at the centre”.
“This will set the tone… as to what will be the outcome of the upcoming India vs BJP contest. I believe this will prove that when INDIA contests together, one and one are not two… but eleven”.
Mr Chadha’s assertion comes amid signs of a thaw in relations between the AAP and the Congress over seat-sharing for the general election. The two parties had seemed poles apart on the topic, underlining rifts in the INDIA bloc amid squabbles over seats just weeks for the election.
This week, though, the Congress and the AAP said they had arrived at a consensus for the mayoral election – one that will see the latter contest the mayor’s post and the former for the two deputies.
