Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has predicted that the Congress party will disappear at the national level after the Lok Sabha elections and several regional parties with the name ‘Congress’ will emerge.
In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK’s Chief Associate Editor Riyad Mathew and Delhi Deputy Chief of Bureau Namrata Biji Ahuja, Sarma claimed that there will be no national party other than the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“After this election, at the national level, the Congress will disappear. There will be various regional Congress parties in various names. They say the NCP is a Congress party, but Ajit Pawar is aligning with the BJP. So you will see the emergence of a lot of regional parties with the name ‘Congress’,” he said.
The chief minister opined that the grand old party will be divided into several regional parties and some of them may even ally with the BJP.
“I see the Congress completely divided into regional parties like Kerala’s Congress, Karnataka Congress, Maharashtra Congress. Sometimes there may even be alliances with the BJP. And they might retain power in some states like this. So, there will be some scope for Congress politicians. But they will become autonomous, more liberated and will handle their own affairs,” he said.
Sarma further predicted that there will be no national party other than the BJP, but admitted that there will be strong regional parties.
“So my prediction is that from next October-November, the disintegration of the Congress will start. Congress workers will abandon Rahul Gandhi. They will wait for parliamentary polls and immediately after that the Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections. Once those are over, you will see a completely new realignment,” he said.
>> Read the full interview in the current issue of THE WEEK
