Moily calls BJP a 'communal demon', says secular parties cannot work in isolation

Moily also rejected suggestions that the country was heading towards a "Congress-mukt Bharat".

Hyderabad, Mar 4: With the BJP's winning juggernaut rolling on, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said on Sunday that secular parties can no longer work in isolation and will have to strike an electoral understanding for survival. Moily also claimed that the Congress would stage a comeback in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where elections are due later this year, and asserted that the party was going from strength to strength in poll-bound Karnataka.

"When we are facing a communal demon like the BJP, no non-communal people and secular party can work in isolation. At some level, some understanding...minimum understanding will have to take place to fight against fascist, communal forces," Moily told PTI.

Moily also rejected suggestions that the country was heading towards a "Congress-mukt Bharat", and the Left parties were going to be irrelevant in some years from now.

"That (Congress-mukt Bharat) can never happen. How can it be? Has it happened in Punjab? Is it happening in Rajasthan, where we got two Parliament seats and one Assembly seat; is it happening in Gujarat, where we were about to win but for the gimmicks played by them, misusing the GST power with them?" Moily asked.

On the Left front's poor show in Tripura, the former Union minister said no political party can become irrelevant in India.

"In a democracy, zero can become 100 and 100 can become zero. That's democratic aspirations. We have to respond, that's all. Left also should do introspection. They should not lose ground. They need to work," Moily said.

On how the Congress could improve its prospects, the former Karnataka chief minister said the party has to deploy people who can work with passion and vigour in their respective constituencies. The Congress representatives should take more interest and work at the grassroots level to reorganise the party, the Lok Sabha member said.

"The Congress has a base in any given state, idea is: we have to work vigorously, put people in charge of states who can work with passion and vigour, also select the right kind of people to head the party in those states to reorganise," he said.

Moily said the Congress has "the tendency and tenacity" to come back to its positions of strength, "for which we need to work hard, (have) perseverance, reach out to every section of the people."

"We have something to offer to the people, the BJP has only communal agenda to offer to the people, we need to work hard and consistently. People from the AICC who fail more than twice, I don't think they should be put in-charge in any state," he said.

PTI