All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary B.K. Hariprasad has said that the Opposition parties led by the Congress will put up a consensus candidate for the Presidential polls “if the NDA candidate is not up to the mark.”
At a news conference here on Friday, he said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance would decide who should be the candidate after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance announced its candidate. The UPA would strategically decide on the presidential candidate, he added.
Replying to a question on cattle slaughter, Mr. Hariprasad said the BJP and the RSS had no right to interfere in the food habits and personal freedom of people. “The RSS cannot dictate what the people should eat, drink and wear,” he said.
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The AICC has decided to expose the all-round failure of the NDA government in the last three years, said Mr. Hariprasad.
The promises of Achhe Din had fallen flat, he said. The government had promised two crore jobs to youths and provided quality education to all. But, the government had been able to generate only 2.31 lakh jobs during 2015-16 and had not been able to come up with an education policy.
The government had collected ₹1,32,649 crore as education cess over the last three years. “Yet 4.7 crore schoolchildren drop out every year and government schools have vacancies of over five lakh teachers,” he said. Mr. Hariprasad also alleged that the BJP-led government had become a collaborator of violence against students and teachers.
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