PM Initiated GST Talks With Sonia Gandhi After Bihar Loss: Digvijaya Singh

BHOPAL: Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has initiated discussion on Goods and Services Tax (GST) with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh after BJP was trounced in Bihar Assembly elections.

“The people of Bihar deserved to be congratulated for pulling Modi from sky and brought him down to earth by defeating his party in the recent assembly elections,” Mr Singh told reporters at his residence in Bhopal.

“Modiji has initiated discussion on GST with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh after suffering humiliating defeat in Bihar,” he said.

“Otherwise he would have not said that the country can run by consensus and not majority. It was because of Bihar and for this besides people of Bihar, we are equally grateful to the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Soniaji (Sonia Gandhi),” the Congress leader said.

“The same Modi who used to say that Congress has not done anything in the last 60 years, now, suddenly remembered that earlier Prime Ministers had also contributed in nation’s development. It is because of Bihar only,” he remarked.

Yesterday, Mr Manmohan Singh and Mr Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with PM Modi over the GST issue and other legislative business pending in Parliament.

Referring to Congress victory in Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat in a recent by-poll in Madhya Pradesh, Mr Singh said that PM Modi and Mr Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh) should clearly understand that nothing will happen by making hollow promises and it clearly reflects that tribals are angry with them especially, Mr Chouhan.

Congress’s Kantilal Bhuria defeated BJP’s Niramla Bhuria and improved party’s tally to 45 in the lower house.

In the recently held Bihar polls, the BJP and its allies were trounced by the Grand Alliance comprising Janata Dal (United), Rashtryia Janata Dal and Congress which clinched 178 seats in the 243 member house.

PTI