"Same As Post Emergency Polls": Congress MP's Lok Sabha Election Prediction

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha on Sunday said the results of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be similar to the one after Emergency in 1977 when "powers of democracy prevailed upon a big party".

This will be an election between a "war machine" and the "power of democracy", the senior lawyer asserted.

Tankha said the opposition at the time began getting together as the pressure of Emergency started waning, and this time too something similar was happening.

The opposition parties were initially scared as they were being "attacked" by probe agencies like the ED and CBI, but as elections were announced, people came forward, he said.

"A war machine, which I call the BJP, cannot be democratic. This will be an election between a war machine and the power of democracy. The result this time will be the same as the post Emergency election when powers of democracy prevailed over a big party," he told PTI.

The Congress under Indira Gandhi was routed in the LS polls held in March 1977, with the Janata alliance winning 345 seats.

The BJP sees itself as a war machine and spreads propaganda but "democracy doesn't fear the war machine and it asserts itself when time comes," Tankha said.