Punjab, UP & Goa Polls Big Challenge for Congress: Digvijaya Singh

Panaji: The assembly election in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Goa next year is "big challenge" for the Congress and fighting these elections is like waging a war against BJP and APP, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh on Saturday.

"We have to enthuse the workers. We have to pump them up, we have to fight. The demoralised party cannot fight election. A demoralised army cannot fight wars. This is a war for us. The elections of Goa, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are big challenges before Congress and we have to unitedly fight the BJP and AAP," Singh told party workers on Saturday.

Accusing AAP of contesting in all these states to give support to BJP, Singh said, "(Union Minister) Nitin Gadkari himself has admitted that AAP will eat into the Congress votes. We have been saying this right from the beginning. If there is any gathbandhan (alliance) in this country, it is between BJP and AAP."

"They (AAP and BJP) are two faces of the same coin.

They are together and each of them is helping the other.

(Delhi Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal is a creature of Vivekananda International Foundation, which is a think tank of BJP and RSS. And he is only targeting Congress," he said.

Kejriwal is a part of 'Congress-mukt Bharat' campaign of BJP-RSS combine, Singh alleged.

"Hindutva has nothing to do with Hindu religion, they want a Hindu nation, which means just as Pakistan is an Islamic nation, they want India to be a Hindu nation, which is not possible and which is against the constitution," Singh said.

"They (BJP) talk of Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution, but don't believe in it because the very fundamental issue of the Indian Constitution is that every person has a right to follow the religion of his choice. Therefore, no one can be forced to follow some other religion. There can't be forced conversion that one should understand," Singh said.

He said next month, Congress will organise a conference of SC, ST and OBC communities, businessmen and farmers in Goa. "All block Congress committees should also hold workers' convention," he said.