Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday credited party workers for the election victories in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and the performance in Madhya Pradesh, where it is locked in a close contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The youth, small traders, farmers and shopkeepers supported the Congress, he added.

“This is a victory of Congress workers who fought for our ideology in difficult circumstances,” the Congress president said. “I would like to thank everyone who has supported us – in the states where we have won and the ones where we have lost.”

The Congress president said the party is going to provide these states a vision and governments that they can be proud of.

“I want to express my gratitude to the chief ministers who worked for the people,” News18 quoted Gandhi as saying. “We did have a face-off with them as opposition and we will take their work forward. We now have lot of work to do in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and hopeully Madhya Pradesh.”

The Congress president said it would be difficult for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to win the 2019 General Elections given the current political situation. “The country is not happy with demonetisation, the Goods and Services Tax and lack of jobs,” he added. “Happy for what we have achieved, but had expected better results in Telangana.”

He pointed out that the prime minister was elected in 2014 on the platforms of
employment generation, battling corruption and helping farmers. “It was in people’s mind that the prime minister will fight against corruption,” he added. “Now people think that PM Modi himself is corrupt.”

He said the Congress has defeated the BJP in these elections and will do so again in 2019. “But we don’t want to erase anyone from the face of India,” he added.

Asked about possible tie-ups with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, Gandhi said: “The ideology of the SP, BSP and Congress is the same – different from that of BJP.”

The Congress president said the process of choosing chief ministers “will be done smoothly”. He is likely to meet the members of the Congress Legislature Party of Rajasthan on Wednesday evening to choose the chief minister, PTI reported.

Gandhi also raised concerns about electronic voting machines. “As far as the EVMs are concerned, there are issues with them universally,” he said. “If the people in the country are uncomfortable with the EVM, then it’s a big issue which needs to addressed.”

The Congress president said if a voting machine’s chip is manipulated “it can affect the entire voting system”. But that is not possible with manual voting, he claimed. “This is a question that has been answered in the US and other countries, where they have said that we do not want an EVM.”