TS Singh Deo, the opposition leader in Chhattisgarh and among the chief minister hopefuls in the Congress, doesn’t see Naxals as revolutionaries. In an interview, he tells Aman Sharma that if the party comes to power in the state, it will leave the door open for talks with Naxals, but respond with greater force if the ultras use force. Edited excerpts:It indicates a sad situation where the PM has nothing else to say. If you have something positive to say, you do not pick on comments that have been clarified by the person who made them. Obviously, they (Naxals) are not revolutionaries. They are insurgents . Our former PM, Manmohan Singh, had said they are the biggest internal threat to the country.I don’t agree to anybody saying they are revolutionaries. Their philosophy is nonacceptance of our Constitution. Our priority on the Naxal front would first be: all the youth who are sent to jail and then released four years later without any evidence found against them — this sort of thing must stop. We must get people into the mainstream. We must have a 24-hour open door for talks within the framework of the Constitution. And at the same time, we will have thrust on development of those (Naxal-affected) areas. And where force is required, we will meet it with stronger force. It has to be an initiative on all these fronts on the same time.The Congress has taken a very clear stand — that we are fighting the election on a joint leadership platform. This (CM face) is a situation throughout the country in various states. In UP, Yogi Adityanath was not the CM face and the BJP got 80% of the seats. In Chhattisgarh, in 2003, Raman Singh was not the face but he won and became the CM while Ajit Jogi was our face and despite having a face, we lost. In Punjab, we had a face in Amarinder Singh; we won. In Himachal Pradesh, we had a face in Virbhadra Singh but we lost.Our issues are regarding the farmers, youth and women. Education and health parameters are a major concern. We will also focus on employment generation. Loan waiver is our priority one.