Bihar poll will have its impact; Opposition most intolerant: Ashok Gajapati Raju

NEW DELHI: Whatever the outcome of the Bihar elections, it will have an “impact” on the government, Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju said. However, he said that regardless of the results, the opposition cannot get worse than the logjam witnessed in recent Parliament sessions.

“Politically, each election — whether it’s municipal level or any level — has an impact and Bihar also will have an impact,” Raju told ET in an interview. “As far as functioning of Parliament is concerned, it cannot get worse than what happened last time,” he said when asked if Parliament’s functioning would be affected. Raju, a senior member of the Telugu Desam Party, which is a partner of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, dismissed the outcry against the government over instances of intolerance in the country and said the Congress party under Sonia Gandhi had been most intolerant on many issues.

“It is unfortunate that these incidents happen but these sporadic incidents have been happening for the past 25 years. We need to see whether it has gone up or not and then look for a solution and ensure that it does not happen again,” he said.

Raju, a Lok Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh, was especially bitter about the breakup of his state, which led to the formation of Telangana. He considered the splitting up of the state an act of intolerance of the democratic process. “Even my own state was bifurcated. There was no discussion in the Assembly… What intolerance are they talking about? How can Sonia Gandhi talk about tolerance? By doing what she did (bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh) when she was in power, it is difficult for me to believe that she is a tolerant person,” he said.