New Delhi: With the final phase of the Lok Sabha elections now done, exit poll projections have started trickling in.
While some experts say the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) may have a slight advantage over the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), what is clear is this may get as close as it can get.
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, who is fighting from his constituency Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu, spoke to CNBC-TV18 and said he was confident of the Congress-DMK alliance doing well in Tamil Nadu.
When asked what the Congress’ policies would in the event of a Congress-led coalition coming back to power with support from the Left, the former finance minister said, “I think therefore there will be a large degree of commonality between the goals that the Congress will set for itself and the goals that the Left parties may set for themselves. Pre-election posturing may not necessarily remain true post elections.”
He added, “After all, you cannot have elections to the Lok Sabha every year or every other year. Parties would have to learn to work together.”
Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with P Chidambaram on CNBC-TV18.
Q: There is no clear advantage to Congress as yet. It all boils down to allies and specifically [AIADMK supreme] Jayalalithaa could swing things. What's the sense that you’re getting on the ground [in Chennai]?
A: Our assessment is that the front here — Congress and DMK — will win very significant majority of the seats in Tamil Nadu. That means Jayalalitha will end up with a very small share of the seats.
Q: That’s not the projections seems to point out.
A: I didn’t see any projections for Tamil Nadu specifically. Do you have one?
Q: Are you confident of the Congress-DMK alliance doing well at this point?
A: The alliance is doing very well in Tamil Nadu.
Q: The hope as far as the larger economy is concerned is that when we saw the UPA coming together on the back of support from the Left, the economic policies of the UPA were severely constrained. If indeed you will have to take support from the Left this time around to make the numbers, are we going to see a different perspective, a different approach as far as economic policies are concerned?
A: It won’t be different. Over the years, the Congress has calibrated its economic policies not only to spur growth but also to emphasise the inclusive path of growth. In fact, the plan document is titled, “Faster and More Inclusive Growth”. And our short and specific manifesto this time emphasises not just growth but inclusive growth.
I think therefore there will be a large degree of commonality between the goals that the Congress will set for itself and the goals that the Left parties may set for themselves. Pre-election posturing may not necessarily remain true post elections. After all, you cannot have elections for the Lok Sabha every year or every other year. Parties would have to learn to work together. We’ll have to learn from the European experience, parties have to learn to work together and form a government.
Q: If Jayalalithaa were open to the possibility of a Congress-AIADMK tie-up, would that be an option that the Congress would look at post-poll?
A: I don’t think so because I think the alliance between the Congress and the DMK is intact. It is likely to be very successful based on my assessment today. Therefore, it is very unlikely either side that the Congress or AIADMK would have to make any overtures to each other. Surely, we are not making any overtures to the AIADMK at all.
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