Video Editor: Mohd Irshad, Vivek Gupta
From Bollywood to politics, it’s all about influential surnames. They talk about talent and grass-root workers, but in the end only the surname-wallahs get tickets.
As part of The Quint’s election coverage in Madhya Pradesh, we spoke to Akash Vijayvargiya, son of prominent BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya. Akash, a BJP candidate, is contesting elections from the Indore-3 Assembly seat.
We spoke to Vijayvargiya about everything from the politics on Ram Mandir to the aspirations of youth.
People say you are contesting elections because of your father’s name – Vijayvargiya. What do you have to say about it?
The party conducts a survey to see which candidate is likely to win from which constituency. My name came up in that survey. So the party discussed it with Kailash Vijayvargiya and said that since the party does not encourage dynasty politics, it would give the ticket to either one of us. My father suggested I should be given the ticket since my name came up in the survey and that he would work toward bringing the BJP to power in Kolkata.
The BJP is facing a rebel problem across the state, even in Indore. Do you think it will be difficult for the party?
No, not at all. The workers of Bharatiya Janata Party work on certain principles and ideologies. They never go against the views of the party. Yes, there are a lot of differences because there are a huge number of workers, but once the tickets are allotted, all workers get to work together.
Issues of Ram Mandir and Gau Mata are brought up in every election. Will the youth prefer leaders like you who represent young India to raise such issues?
We only do politics over development. We believe in the politics of development. The BJP has brought about a lot of development in the state. There were no roads over here, the BJP constructed them. Earlier, electricity supply was limited to only 2 to 3 hours, but now, electricity is supplied for 24 hours. We have done a lot of work and our issues are always development-related. The Congress plays caste and religion politics since they have done no developmental work.
What do you have to say about the seats?
This time, we will get more than 200 seats without any doubt. The Bharatiya Janata Party has done a lot of work and because of the system of the party, we will win.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)