LS polls will be a straight fight between Congress and RSS: Jairam Ramesh

‘We are projecting Congress, BJP is projecting Modi’

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh and KPCC president G. Parameshwara at a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said the 2014 Lok Sabha elections would witness a “straight fight between the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which remote controls the Bharatiya Janata Party.”

Addressing presspersons at the Congress office in the city, Mr. Ramesh alleged that communal polarisation was the real strategy of the BJP for the polls.

“What has happened in the last few months shows that the 2014 elections are not between the Congress and the BJP, but between ideologies of the Congress and the RSS,” he said.

Hitting out at the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Mr. Ramesh said the party was attempting to convert the 2014 elections into a contest between individuals.

“The Congress’s strategy for the elections is forward-looking, based on performance and policies. Our strategy is not personality based. For us it is a contest between ideologies and not individuals,” he said.

He said the BJP existed only in seven States. “The Congress is the only party fighting at the national level,” he said. “At the end of the day, voters have to decide. We are projecting the Congress and BJP is projecting Modi and that is the fundamental difference between us.”