Don’t ignore Modi: Gowda

Victory for the Congress in the Assembly polls will give a boost to Opposition parties’ unity, but nobody can ignore Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he is a fighter, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda said on Tuesday.

“Nobody can take Modi lightly. Modi is a fighter and he will not sit quiet. To face him, we should put a united fight in the Lok Sabha polls,” Gowda told reporters here.

The NDA paid a heavy price for ignoring farmers and problems of the common man. Demonetisation, bad economic policies and GST problems also added to the BJPs woes, he said.

Gowda said poll results have indicated that no national parties can ignore regional parties. The victory of TRS in Telangana and MNF in Mizoram indicated that the regional parties play a key role in national politics, Gowda said.

“If Congress wanted to take a lead in the country to mobilise the anti-BJP parties, it must take regional parties into confidence,” he said. The result was a big boost to Congress and its national president Rahul Gandhi, Gowda said adding that in grand alliance Congress will play a crucial role.