Gaurav Gogoi: 2019 poll will be people versus Modi and Amit Shah

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, son of a former Assam chief minister and his party’s in-charge for West Bengal, said on Tuesday that the 2019 Lok Sabha election would see the people of India on one side and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on the other. Speaking to reporters, he accused the government of helping crony capitalists while ignoring the middle class and the poor.

Gogoi’s charges

Gogoi said Indians were known for pluralism and unity in diversity, but argued that the BJP had divided society. He claimed none of the promises made by Modi and the BJP had been kept and that young people remained jobless and frustrated.

Going through the NDA government’s years in office, he listed what he described as scams and anti-people decisions:

• the land acquisition move in 2014;
• a recommendation in 2015 that, he said, helped Lalit Modi leave for the UK;
• the Prime Minister’s conduct on the Rafale deal in France in 2015, which Gogoi called highly questionable;
• demonetisation in the third year, during which he said 100 people died, adding that people in the BJP camp gained from it;
• in the fourth year, a photograph of the wanted Nirav Modi with the Prime Minister, and Mehul Choksi taking citizenship of Antigua.

The Rafale allegation

Gogoi alleged that, instead of strengthening security, the government had weakened it by cutting the number of Rafale jets from 126 to 36. He also criticised the decision to give work on the aircraft to a private company that, he said, had never built fighter jets. The government’s view was not given in the report.

What happened next

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election the BJP won 303 of 543 seats and the Congress 52. Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019.

See also: Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.

Originally published on 5 September 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us