New Delhi: Congress has always given the call for unity of secular forces, senior party leader P Chidambaram said today indicating that the party would make efforts to rally all like-minded parties after the elections to keep Narendra Modi-led BJP out of power.
At the same time, he dubbed as "speculation and hypothetical" suggestion as to whether Congress would prefer to sit in the opposition if there is a substantial fall in its tally or prop any Third Front government with outside support.
"This is all speculation, hypothetical. We have full faith that UPA led by
Congress will come to power," Chidambaram said replying to a number of questions.
"As far as uniting secular forces is concerned, this call we have given all the time. Congress is at the head of all secular forces in the country... We have always been taking a lead position in uniting the secular forces," he said.
Chidambaram at the same time said that the party has gone into elections with the faith that the UPA headed by Congress will emerge victorious and asked the media to wait till polling for all phases are over.
"I do not share your concern that there is any general resentment with UPA. Some sections of people want a change ..That is part of the democratic churning," he said rejecting questions on the perception that there is an anti-UPA atmosphere in the country and Congress is down in the dumps.
Referring to 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, he said that while predictning election results almost all opinion and exit polls and much of the media were hopelessly wrong.
Noting that `the tail cannot wag the body, the body can wag the tail`, a Congress leader had rejected the idea of extending outside support to a Third Front to stop Modi.
There have been suggestions by several party leaders, including Prithviraj Chavan, Salman Khurshid and Jairam Ramesh, that Congress should back a Third Front if the need be to keep BJP out of power.
Chidambaram did not agree with a questioner that good economics is essentially not good politics.
"Good economics is indeed good politics. I will be unhappy if someone is going with this message that the opposite is true,"he said dubbing such perception as "frightening" if youngsters believe so.
He also refused to accept that higher voter turnout is an essential indication of anti-establishment votes, which could adversely affect Congress.
He said the government should be congratualted for creating an atmoshere of confidence in which more and more people come out to cast votes.
Responding to a question whether Congress could not communicate about its achievement properly, the Finance Minister said that any communication involves three sets of people including the communicator, the communciated and the media and hoped the media would carry his remarks.
