‘We took up people’s issues, got rewarded’: Sachin Pilot after Lok Sabha election results

Some of your allies too have done well. For instance, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. Mamata Banerjee’s TMC improved its tally. What is the message in this mandate?

The people have rejected the kind of government that they had for the last ten years.

The sense of arrogance that had seeped so deep into the government..they saw nothing in terms of the opposition or Constitutional bodies…In state, where there was a head to head contest between the BJP and the Congress, we have done much better than last time and that’s the reason why states like Haryana and Rajasthan stood out in terms of pushing back the BJP numbers. The BJP numbers came down largely because of that. UP and Bengal have also contributed.

But the INDIA bloc could not cross the halfway mark. The NDA still managed to cross the magic figure of 272.

Let’s all wait for the last vote to be counted and then come to some kind of conclusion. But it is very clear that this is a vote against the government. The perception, the wind, the mood, the atmosphere are all certainly against the ruling dispensation.

There seems to be a message in the mandate for the BJP. But the people still chose the NDA perhaps because of a lack of credible alternative. Do you agree?

First you have to give credit to the enhanced numbers that the Congress and its allies have got. The complacency and the kind of functioning of the government…it was a vote against that. They were seeking a vote on the basis of two terms of performance. Their numbers have come down, the numbers of their allies have come down. The tall claims that they had made…370 and 400 paar…they are nowhere near that. In terms of alternative…in politics everything is possible.

The Congress was routed in Rajasthan some months ago. The party has won eight seats and its allies have won three. And most of the gains have come in eastern Rajasthan. What has changed?

Our candidates were better, our campaign was better and clearly the government of the day, the current BJP government has not been able to leave any impact amongst the people even in their so-called honeymoon period…they were not able to retain their vote. In Dausa seat, we won by more than two lakh votes. So, I think our candidate selection, our strategy, our campaign itself was far more rigorous and better received than the BJP. The new government really has left no impression, no mark on the people. It is also clearly a reflection of the state government. This is a response of the people to the Central government and to the double-engine of the state government.

As AICC general secretary, you are in charge of Chhattisgarh. The party had two seats in the state but could win only one this time.

We were hopeful of increasing the tally. That is something we have to work on. Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh we need to work where we lost the one seat we had. So, these are the states where we have to improve organisationally, our electoral performance has to get better. The results in these states mean there is much more scope to do much better.