"Non-BJP Parties Must Unite If Serious About Defeating BJP": P Chidambaram

On politics in the northeast, he said the problem in the region was that there are no lasting ideological commitments.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday spoke about his party's performance in northeastern states, admitting that Congress leaders in the region falter in ideological commitment. He pointed out that most Chief Ministers in the northeast have been Congress leaders who switched to other parties. He claimed they would switch back once Congress returns to power at the Centre. He also said that to defeat BJP in the upcoming state polls or even in the national elections, the non-BJP parties must come together. "If someone is not will to join the non-BJP front then one can question that party on whether they are serious in opposing BJP," he said in Guwahati today. 

Attacking the BJP-led government at the Centre, he said that militancy has increased in the Kashmir valley after the decision to carve out two union territories out of Jammu and Kashmir, and amending section 370 that granted special status to the erstwhile state. "We had contained militancy in Jammu and Kashmir till 2014. All that has been reversed by the authoritarian and unilateral approach of the BJP," he said. 

Addressing concerns on the internal structure of the party, he said there were weaknesses but they had been winning elections both in alliance and alone. "I admit there is a structural weakness in the Congress. I admit that we lost elections, but we have won elections as well, in alliances and as a single party," the Congress leader said.