The Tuesday Interview | 'One blip in the Assembly elections doesn’t change anything'

After Assembly elections, especially in Maharashtra, the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. is witnessing a churning within. Shiv Sena (UBT)’s senior MP Priyanka Chaturvedi spoke to DH’s Shemin Joy on the Assembly results, the Opposition coalition, Parliament session and other political developments.

After returning to normal functioning, Parliament is witnessing disruption again. What has gone wrong?

The disruption is continuously coming from the treasury benches because they want to escape accountability. They do not want the Zero Hour, they do not want any discussion. What is the Opposition seeking a discussion on? We are seeking a discussion on Gautam Adani, who faces allegations of giving thousands of crores of rupees as bribe to acquire some government contracts. Shouldn't we seek accountability? Shouldn't the Prime Minister, who says zero tolerance to corruption, come forward and answer these charges and order an investigation? What is the other topic? It is the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. Whether it is Sambhal, or Ajmer, there is a never-ending quest to keep finding 'mandirs' below some masjid. The loophole that the former Chief Justice of India has left behind is scarring the nation. The other important issue is Manipur. A very important part of India continues to be denied justice and continues to be ignored by the union government. It's something that we want to bring to the notice of the Parliament. Unfortunately, all of that is being denied to us under the garb of some conspiracy theory that BJP has created.

Are you referring to the BJP allegations about George Soros' links with the Congress? Why is the BJP raising it?

The only reason that they are raising it is because they want to try and create a fake narrative, which is based on their biases and wanting to escape accountability. They continue to quote the 'Media Part' report, which has not mentioned any names. It just said, which is very well known, that most of the democracies are coming under threat. The BJP is raising this simply because it creates a narrative against the Opposition, which has already been debunked by the people. Yet they continue with these conspiracy theories in the hope that they will be able to create an anti-Opposition sentiment. They do realize that with 240 seats, they are only going to find it difficult to win the mandate of the people.

You referred to Adani. There are different voices within the Opposition about giving primacy to the Adani issue. Do you think Adani is a big issue?

Here is why we think it is important. Someone has spent thousands of crores of rupees to bribe officials to get government contracts like solar projects. People are ending up paying hugely for electricity. Let's not forget about airports being handed over to Adani. We know about the Dharavi project. These are going to impact people because of what Adani is being allowed to get away with. If we do not nip it in the bud, till we do not have a free and frank discussion, it is going to be problematic. I do understand most of the regional parties want to discuss certain specific issues, like ourselves who want to discuss the electoral process. All are extremely important and crucial issues. However, the larger issue continues to be that someone is getting away with a bribe, continues to get richer, continues to hold the nation to ransom and continues to undermine all agencies with no investigation being announced. We support this protest that the Congress is doing because we do understand the impact of it. When I come from Maharashtra, when I see the Mumbai Airport being taken over by Adani, Dharavi being taken over by Adani, we see electricity being provided by Adani, I think it is a bigger threat to the larger cause of the nation.

There is a perception that the Opposition is not united. Mamata Banerjee has raised a question on the leadership issue. How do you see that?

I do not see Mamata Banerjee raising the issue of wanting to lead the alliance as an issue which is creating a disconnect in I.N.D.I.A. It is more about her willingness to lead the entire I.N.D.I.A narrative as well as for the current dispensation to understand the seriousness of us having to win and convert these sentiments into victories. The beauty of the alliance is that it has come together on the plank of safeguarding democracy and the Constitution. We are having a free and frank discussion on the outcome of the recent Assembly elections. We have seen two stunning reversals, which are still inexplicable, unexplainable and goes against the mandate and the will of the people. Maharashtra has seen protests.

Some say Sambhal and related campaigns by the rightwing is an attempt to polarise voters ahead of UP polls in 2027. Do you think so?

Absolutely, this is the beginning. This is being used as a tool to create more divisiveness, which is a tried and tested toolkit of the BJP to win votes in its favor. At the same time, people of Uttar Pradesh also saw how the Bangladeshi Hindus who are being targeted are met with total silence from the union government. Divisiveness is the main core agenda of the BJP to win the mandate, to instill a sense of fear and to divide the people on the basis of religious lines, which they started with Sambhal and with Gyanvapi. We will probably see more mosques coming under the scrutiny of getting a survey done, which will lead to more problems and more division.

The MVA has questioned the electoral outcome of Maharashtra. What is the future course of action?

We have been raising this issue for sometime. We had flagged voter deletion and spike in votes cast that even a former chief election commissioner has raised. This leads to a larger debate. Can't the voter expect an answer from the Election Commission on how fair and transparent the entire process is? Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has said that if there was no EVM, perhaps they would have won a much larger mandate. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said they would have perhaps won more seats that it won in Lok Sabha and even if they were to win all 80 Lok Sabha seats, they would continue to question the EVM. Votes being stolen from voters is a step towards ending democracy.

The Maharashtra results were stunning and surprising to Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). How strong is the MVA after the election?

The MVA continues to hold on together and continues to be strong. We have seen the ground sentiment that the people are not really with the Maha Yuti and yet, it got such a massive mandate. People do have a question and I think it is getting bigger. Responsibility of the alliance is to come together to put their entire force and energy together to get to the bottom of this issue of bringing in more transparency and accountability in institutions like the Election Commission.

After the Assembly elections, there are questions on who owns the Sena legacy. Some say Uddhav Thackeray has lost the legacy battle to Eknath Shinde. Do you agree?

I think that is a false narrative to build simply because our party name and symbol was handed over to the other faction despite the Supreme Court coming down strongly against this entire decision by the Election Commission. It is a fight we continue to fight. In the Lok Sabha elections, we had emphatically proved that even with a new symbol, even with a new party name, we managed to outdo the other faction, which had taken over a party name and symbol. One blip in the Assembly elections, which is definitely an anomaly, does not change anything. This is a stolen mandate, a mandate of the Election Commission of India and not of the people of Maharashtra. We will prove emphatically who the legacy truly belongs to.