Gehlot says Rahul Gandhi is Congress’ PM candidate for 2024 LS polls
Ashok Gehlot told a media house in an interview that all 26 Opposition parties of the INDIA alliance took the decision after discussions and deliberations
Rahul Gandhi is the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been quoted as saying.
Gehlot told India Today/Aaj Tak that all 26 Opposition parties of the INDIA alliance took the decision after discussions and deliberations. However, there has been no official announcement from the alliance yet on this decision.
According to the Congress veteran, the current national situation has exerted “immense pressure” on all parties to forget the local factors and come together for the INDIA alliance.
Reminding people that “BJP came to power with only 31% votes” in 2014, Gehlot said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not be “arrogant”.
While the NDA has claimed to come to power with 50 per cent votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he pointed out that Modi could not do that even at the peak of his popularity. “Modi will never be able to achieve that,” he said in the interview.
Talking about Modi exuding confidence that he will return as the Prime Minister next year, Gehlot said the decision was up to the people to make. He also claimed that the NDA was “scared” when the INDIA alliance met in Bengaluru in July.
Talking about the success of Chandrayaan-3, he attributed India’s successful Moon landing to former prime ministers Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. “The current achievements are the result of the hard work of Indira Gandhi and Nehru,” he told India Today/Aaj Tak.
He said ISRO was established because Nehru took scientist Vikram Sarabhai’s suggestion. He added that it was named something else then, but the name was changed to ISRO under Indira Gandhi.
