Former Finance Minister and Rajya Sabha member P. Chidambaram on Tuesday urged the people of Gujarat to vote for Congress as it performs better than the BJP.It laid the foundation stone for a developed Gujarat from 1960 to 1995, he added.
Addressing mediapersons in Ahmedabad, Chidambaram said for good governance to make political parties accountable, people should vote for change every five or ten years. The ideal examples are Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where people vote for change, making political parties accountable to them.
If you don't change, political parties become arrogant and take people for granted.The arrogance of BJP is visible from the Morbi Bridge collapse tragedy in which 135 persons were killed, yet neither the government has apologised to the people of Morbi, nor has there been any action against any officers for the failure.
Exposing the growth claims of the ruling party, Chidambaram cited data stating all is not well in Gujarat as claimed. "The State Gross Domestic Product is declining, in 2017-18 it was 10.7 per cent which has fallen to (-) 1.9 per cent in 2020-21, the state debt is 18 per cent of the GSDP as per the state data, but according to RBI's data it is 24 per cent of GSDP.
As many as 16 lakh population of the state is living in slums, unemployment rate is 12.5 per cent in the age group of 20-24. Infant mortality rate is 29 per 1000 live births, under the age of five, 31 children die per 1,000 live births."
Attacking the saffron party he said, in the last six years, three chief ministers have changed in the state, had the elections been held in 2023, he is confident that even Bhupendra Patel would have been shown the door by the BJP.
The state government is not run by the Chief Minister sitting in Gandhinagar, but by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah duo from the national capital.