Congress will form the next government: Antony

Thiruvananthapuram, April 6 (IANS) The Congress-led UPA will be forming the next government, according to AICC working committee member and senior Congress leader A.K. Antony.

The senior Congress leader, who arrived in the state to campaign across the 14 districts for all the 20 candidates of the Congress-led UDF, told the media in the state capital on Saturday that the results of the elections will be very crucial for the country's future.

"The Constitution of the country has been tinkered with by the RSS-guided Narendra Modi government in the past five years. The challenge before the electorate today is that the country cannot afford to have a government that works under the RSS influence. Things are changing and we are now sure that the Congress will form the next government," said Antony.

The much-promised 'achhe din' has miserably failed and never before in the past 45 years has the country faced serious problems of unemployment and suicide by farmers. The ethos of unity in diversity for which the country has been known has also been affected, Antony said.

He said the reason why Rahul Gandhi has selected Wayanad as the second constituency is because it's a convergence of three states -- Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

"Wait and see the margin of his 9rahul Gandhi's) victory, here. It's absurd to say that he has run away from Amethi. Which constituency he retains is his prerogative," said Antony.

On the charge that Gandhi has take a safe seat in the stronghold of Indian Union Muslim League, Antony said it's been five decades since the IUML has been into politics and it has shared power even with the Communists.

"When I was a Union Minister, on several occasions I saw Yogi Adityanath, the then Lok Sabha MP and the current UP Chief Minister, engrossed in talks with IUML leader and then Union Minister E. Ahamed," said Antony.

Antony also took on the CPI-M, saying he "fails to understand what has gone wrong" with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

"Today the CPI-M is present only in Kerala -- it has been wiped out in West Bengal and Tripura. I want to ask Vijayan as to why the parties that are CPI-M's allies in Kerala have not given a seat to the CPI-M to contest in Maharashtra, Karnataka or Bihar.

Antony also touched upon the Sabarimala issue and pointed out that both the CPI-M and BJP have used it to cover up their own lapses.

Antony begins his statewide campaign from Kasargode tomorrow and would cover one district each day.