Mumbai, May 4 (IANS) Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Harshwardhan Sapkal said on Monday that in the Assembly elections held across five states, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) employed tactics of persuasion, inducement, coercion and division, but the people of South India have rejected the BJP’s toxic, divisive and nation-fragmenting ideology, as well as the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Reacting to the Assembly election results, Sapkal said that in West Bengal, the Narendra Modi government, with the help of the Election Commission of India, disregarded all limits, traditions and rules.

“Agencies like the NIA, CRPF, and encounter specialist officers were deployed in West Bengal, and oppressive measures were used. Once again, the BJP has secured victory in West Bengal through alleged malpractices, but this “toxic force” of the BJP did not work in South India, nor did PM Modi’s leadership.”

“In Kerala, the Congress party’s victory is a win for democracy and the Constitution. The people of Kerala have expressed their faith in the Congress ideology and the leadership of Rahul Gandhi,” Sapkal added.

He expressed confidence that it is the Congress ideology that can save the country, and that Kerala’s victory has infused great enthusiasm among the party workers across India — an energy that will strengthen the party in the times ahead.

Meanwhile, the State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that BJP leaders are expressing joy over the success achieved in the birthplace of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee.

“This is the same Syama Prasad Mukherjee who wrote letter to the British Governor to crush the 1942 Quit India Movement. Be that as it may. It must certainly be a matter of sorrow that the fanatical ideology which Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who said, “Give me blood and I will give you freedom”, staunchly opposed, has now entered in his birthplace,” he remarked.

–IANS

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