Rahul: Congress will 'decimate' BJP in upcoming state Assembly polls
The BJP will be “decimated” by the Congress in the next three to four state elections in India, party leader Rahul Gandhi has said, adding the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi don’t enjoy the kind of support they claim to have.
The former Congress president made the remarks at a reception hosted for him in Washington on Thursday by eminent Indian American Frank Islam. Rahul is on a three-city tour of the United States.
Rahul said there was a tendency to believe that the BJP-RSS juggernaut was unstoppable but he said this was not the reality. “I will make a little prediction here,” he said. “You will see that the next three or four elections that we fight directly with the BJP, (BJP) will be decimated.”
Also read: Rahul Gandhi in US: Opposition united, outcome of 2024 polls will ‘surprise’ people
“I can give it to you right now, that they are gonna have a really tough time in these assembly elections. We’ll do to them the very similar stuff we have done in Karnataka. But if you ask the Indian media, that’s not going to happen,” he said.
The Congress convincingly defeated the BJP and seized power in Karnataka in the May 10 assembly elections.
Modi vulnerable
Rahul told a select group of Indian Americans, members of the think-tank community and lawmakers that the Indian media was giving a highly favourable version of the BJP.
“Please realise that 60 per cent of India does not vote for the BJP, does not vote for Narendra Modi. That’s something you have to remember. The BJP has the instruments of noise in their hand, so they can shout, they can scream, they can distort, they can yell, and they are much better at doing that. But they do not have the vast majority of the Indian population (supporting them).”
Responding to a question, Gandhi said he was convinced the Congress will be able to defeat the BJP. Assembly elections will be held in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram later this year, setting the stage for the crucial general elections in 2024.
Also read: Never imagined disqualification was possible when I joined politics: Rahul Gandhi
Indian democracy
Rahul admitted that if the BJP goes, rebuilding the democratic architecture in India will not be easy. “It is gonna be difficult. It is gonna take time. But we are absolutely convinced that we have the basic requirements that are needed to defeat the BJP.”
“You will hear from the (Indian) media that Modi is impossible to defeat. A lot of it is exaggerated. Modi is actually quite vulnerable. There is huge unemployment in the country, a massive increase in prices in the country, and these things in India, pinch people, very, very quickly and very hard,” the former MP said.
“But it has been a very interesting time for me to see how this process plays out. I would have never imagined that this is how democracy is attacked. This is the method of attacking a democracy. It has been very good for me,” he said when asked about his disqualification as an MP. “These are good things for me because they teach me and they crystalize exactly what I am supposed to do and how I am supposed to do it.”
(With agency inputs)
