A political cauldron bubbled over for three days, with politicians, ministers and decision-makers tossing out bold visions for nation-building, while election strategies like caste appeasement and welfare governance simmered beneath the surface at the Manch 2023 political conclave, organised by ITV Network, of which The Sunday Guardian is a part.
Union ministers and top political minds shared the stage at the event as the tempo for the general elections starts to build, amid competing strategy of the BJP to score a hat-trick using “Modi ki guarantee” in 2024 to win 350-400 seats and the rival lNDIA bloc vowing to stop the advance of the saffron brigade. The diverse perspectives and lively exchanges generated a multitude of ideas and insights, setting the stage for further deliberations on the future of the nation’s parliamentary democracy.
Member of national executive of RSS Ram Madhav predicted an even bigger mandate for the BJP in 2024 and said the “mature voters of the country have shown in the Assembly elections that they do not want to change a performing government for the sake of change.”
Biplab Kumar Deb, BJP in-charge in Haryana and former Tripura Chief Minister, said the outcome of the recent Assembly elections has already made it clear that the 1.40 crore voters of the country had made up their mind to re-elect the Narendra Modi government. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and MoS, PMO, Jitendra Singh credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state BJP leaderships for the party’s victory in the Hindi heartland Assembly elections and shared the BJP’s resolve for a hat-trick in the Lok Sabha elections.
Partners comprising the I.N.D.I.A bloc came in the firing line of Smriti Irani, Union Women and Child Development Minister, when she slammed their silence over the anti-Sanatan Dharma remarks made by one of the allies. “They are silent as they have faith in ‘satta’ (power) and not Sanatan,” she said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the results in the just-concluded Assembly elections had set the tone for vote-for-change and this pattern would continue in the Lok Sabha elections.
Minister for Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju linked the BJP’s success to clean governance and said, “Not a single minister of the Modi government has been caught in corruption related cases in the last nine years.” BJP vice-president Baijayant Panda projected 350- plus seats for the BJP on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
On the I.N.D.I Alliance, Panda said, “This is the latest iteration of a repeatedly failed idea.” Calling the Opposition bloc a flopped experiment, Panda said it was another thing to bring parties on the same platform on the basis of ideology, and another to bring parties on stage through camaraderie of leaders.
Sudhanshu Trivedi, BJP MP and national spokesman, hit out at the Opposition for accusing the BJP of doing “Gau Mata politics”. AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha hit out at the BJP and its allies for building the “revdi” (electoral sops) narrative against the AAP. “Arvind Kejriwal is the father of guarantees, which others call “revdi”, and the parties that were criticising us are themselves offering guarantees to voters.”
D.K. Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, talked about the mandate against the Congress in the Hindi heartland and raised the issue of EVM for not reflecting the true wish of the voters. His party colleague Sanjay Nirupam said despite the party’s recent defeat in the Hindi belt the Congress still enjoys about 40% vote share. He said the Modi