KOLHAPUR: A front of 23 political parties will be formed to avoid the division of votes, in order to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the forthcoming Lok Sabha (LS) elections , said former chief minister of Maharashtra and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan Chavan was on a one-day tour of the district. While addressing a press conference, Chavan said that the issue of failure to provide jobs for the youth by the government and the Rafale scam will be the decisive factors and that the Congress will easily defeat the BJP.“The BJP came to power on the promise of a corruption-free system and the other promise of providing two crore jobs to the youth. However, the BJP-led government has failed to create the promised number of jobs and has got involved in the Rafale scam. The decisions such as demonetization caused heavy losses to the industries and the reports state that it has also caused unemployment. We have reached out to 23 parties, which will form a united front and contest the elections together. It will help us to avoid the division of votes, which was the major reason for our defeat in the last election,” said Chavan.Chavan said that around one crore jobs have been lost in the last four and half years and all sections of the society have become restless. “In the last election, the BJP received 31 % of the votes and the opposition received 63% of the votes. However, the Congress and other parties contested on our own and this led to the division of votes. We are going to enter into alliances with like-minded parties in every state. Our manifesto is ready and we will roll it out soon,” said Chavan.Chavan added that discussions are ongoing with Prakash Ambedkar of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh and Raju Shetti of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana. He said that Shetti has demanded three seats, over which the discussions are going on. “In next two to three days, the picture of the alliance against the BJP will be clear. The BJP will not get a clear mandate this time. They will face a loss of around 100 to 120 seats. Our front will win at least 380 seats and therefore, the change in power is imminent,” added Chavan.

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