India
‘Who would be the best face to take on PM Modi?’: What Rahul Gandhi said | India News – Times of India
NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday addressed the long-pending question of who would be the prime ministerial candidate against Prime Minister Modi.
During a recent meeting with students at Georgetown University in the US, Rahul said the decision would be taken only after the INDIA bloc secures victory in the Lok Sabha elections.
“I mean our stand in our alliance is that we are not going to answer that question until we win the elections. There are many talented people in the INDIA bloc,” Rahul said.
“The moment we start that discussion, it opens the space for the press and the BJP to create problems. So our decision is that we are not going to ask that question; we are going to fight the elections and then, after the elections, decide,” he added.
During the conversation, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha referred to the Lok Sabha elections as ‘controlled elections’ and claimed that in ‘fair elections’ the Bharatiya Janata Party would not have even crossed the 240-seat mark.
“Sometimes I would sit there and say, this is amazing, isn’t it? There was a wall that suddenly came up and said, okay, we’re not giving up now. And I really don’t think the BJP, in a fair election, would get anywhere near 240 seats, not at all. I mean, I would be surprised if they had a financial, you know, huge financial advantage. They had blocked our bank accounts for one, but a huge war chest. The Election Commission did whatever they wanted. I mean, the whole campaign was structured in such a way that Mr. Modi could do his thing across the country. States where they were weak were designed differently than states where they were strong. So I don’t see it as a free election at all. I see it as a pretty controlled election,” he said.
Elaborating further on the challenges faced by the opposition, Rahul said, “A number of things came together. So, for example, before the elections, we kept emphasising that the institutions have been hijacked. And whenever we went, the Indian alliance went, we went, we emphasised this idea that, look, the institutions have been hijacked and we don’t have a level playing field. The education system has been hijacked by the RSS, the media system has been hijacked, the research institutions have been hijacked. And we kept saying this and people didn’t quite understand, and we kept saying it again and again and somehow they just didn’t understand. And we couldn’t understand why, because we thought, it’s clear to us, it’s clear to them, and something was not working.”
Earlier, Rahul continued to criticise the BJP and claimed that the “fear” among the people of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has disappeared after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Gandhi arrived in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday for his three-day visit to the US, where he was welcomed at the airport by Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congressand members of the Indian diaspora.
During a recent meeting with students at Georgetown University in the US, Rahul said the decision would be taken only after the INDIA bloc secures victory in the Lok Sabha elections.
“I mean our stand in our alliance is that we are not going to answer that question until we win the elections. There are many talented people in the INDIA bloc,” Rahul said.
Watch: Shri Rahul Gandhi talks to students at Georgetown University in Washington DC, USA.
“The moment we start that discussion, it opens the space for the press and the BJP to create problems. So our decision is that we are not going to ask that question; we are going to fight the elections and then, after the elections, decide,” he added.
During the conversation, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha referred to the Lok Sabha elections as ‘controlled elections’ and claimed that in ‘fair elections’ the Bharatiya Janata Party would not have even crossed the 240-seat mark.
“Sometimes I would sit there and say, this is amazing, isn’t it? There was a wall that suddenly came up and said, okay, we’re not giving up now. And I really don’t think the BJP, in a fair election, would get anywhere near 240 seats, not at all. I mean, I would be surprised if they had a financial, you know, huge financial advantage. They had blocked our bank accounts for one, but a huge war chest. The Election Commission did whatever they wanted. I mean, the whole campaign was structured in such a way that Mr. Modi could do his thing across the country. States where they were weak were designed differently than states where they were strong. So I don’t see it as a free election at all. I see it as a pretty controlled election,” he said.
Elaborating further on the challenges faced by the opposition, Rahul said, “A number of things came together. So, for example, before the elections, we kept emphasising that the institutions have been hijacked. And whenever we went, the Indian alliance went, we went, we emphasised this idea that, look, the institutions have been hijacked and we don’t have a level playing field. The education system has been hijacked by the RSS, the media system has been hijacked, the research institutions have been hijacked. And we kept saying this and people didn’t quite understand, and we kept saying it again and again and somehow they just didn’t understand. And we couldn’t understand why, because we thought, it’s clear to us, it’s clear to them, and something was not working.”
Earlier, Rahul continued to criticise the BJP and claimed that the “fear” among the people of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has disappeared after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Gandhi arrived in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday for his three-day visit to the US, where he was welcomed at the airport by Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congressand members of the Indian diaspora.
