Ghulam Nabi Azad launches Congress Lok Sabha campaign in Barak

SILCHAR: Senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said here on Tuesday that BJP has employed the strategy of spreading hatred and violence to come back to power.


Azad, who is the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha , said the Narendra Modi government, addressed a meeting of the Congress workers at Banskandi in Cachar district and launched his party's Lok Sabha campaign in the minority-dominated areas of Barak Valley.

During the day, nearly 50 AIUDF members joined the Congress in the presence of the senior party leader. Silchar MP and All India Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev also addressed the meeting.

Assam has two Lok Sabha seats in the Barak Valley. In 2014, the Silchar seat went to the Congress while AIUDF had won the Karimganj (SC).

"BJP is practising the politics of spreading hatred and enmity across the country just for the sake of coming back to power. The party has abandoned good sense and is not taking into consideration the well-being of the nation and the people," Azad said, further claiming that the BJP is out to divide the nation and its society along caste and communal lines.

He added, "For Congress, the country always comes first and the party comes later. Congress never did anything which was against the interests of the people and will never do so in the future." He appealed to the people not to fall prey to BJP's "communal agenda" and ensure a peaceful co-existance.

Azad further said a Congress-led government will come to power at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls. He categorically stated that Sushmita Dev, the sitting MP from Silchar, would be nominated again as the Congress candidate from the prestigious Silchar segment. He also expressed his confidence that Dev would be re-elected from the southern Assam seat with an even bigger margin this time.