Rahul blames AAP for Congress’s Gujarat election loss

India

oi-PTI

He
rejected
suggestions
that
winning
the
Himachal
Pradesh
polls
was
like
a
“drop
in
the
ocean”
in
the
current
scenario.

Jaipur,
Dec
16:
The
Congress
should
not
be
underestimated
and
it
will
take
down
the
BJP,
Rahul
Gandhi
said
on
Friday
and
asserted
that
the
Congress
is
different
from
a
large
number
of
Opposition
parties
as
it
represents
a
vision
for
the
country
which
none
of
the
regional
outfits
can
do.

He
also
claimed
that
his
party
would
have
probably
beaten
the
BJP
in
the
Gujarat
assembly
polls
had
the
Aam
Aadmi
Party
not
been
put
up
as
a
“proxy”
and
used
to
target
the
Congress.

Addressing
a
press
conference
here
on
the
completion
of
100
days
of
the
party’s
Kanyakumari
to
Kashmir
Bharat
Jodo
Yatra,
Gandhi
said
the
idea
that
the
Congress
is
dying
is
a
fantasy
of
many,
but
it
won’t
come
true.

Asked
about
the
exodus
of
leaders
from
the
Congress
in
the
recent
past,
he
said
if
certain
people
who
don’t
have
the
courage
to
face
the
BJP,
are
corrupt
and
the
BJP
can
apply
pressure
on
them,
they
are
welcome
to
leave
the
party.

“We
don’t
want
them.
What
we
need
is
people
who
are
fighting
the
BJP,
who
believe
in
the
Congress
ideology
and
who
are
standing
firm
against
the
fascism
that
is
taking
place
in
this
country,
that
is
what
we
need,”
Gandhi
said.

He
rejected
suggestions
that
winning
the
Himachal
Pradesh
polls
was
like
a
“drop
in
the
ocean”
in
the
current
scenario.

Responding
to
a
question,
he
said,
“Please
don’t
underestimate
what
the
Congress
is.
What
has
happened
is
that,
and
with
all
due
respect
you
(media)
have
been
responsible
for
it,
there
has
been
a
systematic
defamation
campaign
run
against
myself
for
sure
and
against
the
Congress,
and
the
press
has
participated
wilfully
in
this,”
Gandhi
said.

But
the
idea
that
the
Congress
is
withering
away
and
is
ineffective,
has
all
been
preached
by
the
BJP,
the
former
Congress
chief
said.

“Let
me
be
very
clear,
the
Congress
is
an
ideological
party,
it
is
the
party
that
is
ideologically
opposed
to
the
BJP,
it
is
the
party
that
is
fighting
the
BJP
on
the
ground,
it
does
not
compromise
with
the
BJP,
it
has
its
principles,”
he
said.

“Mark
my
words,
the
BJP
is
going
to
be
taken
down
by
the
Congress,”
he
asserted.

Gandhi
said
lakhs
and
crores
of
party
workers
are
its
strength
and
“if
we
utilise
our
workers
well,
we
will
be
able
to
ensure
a
massive
victory
of
the
Congress
in
Rajasthan
in
next
elections”.

Asked
about
the
response
to
the
Bharat
Jodo
Yatra
so
far,
he
said
it
has
been
overwhelming
in
Rajasthan
and
the
Hindi
speaking
belt.

“We
saw
that
it
is
not
just
the
party
workers,
but
the
general
public
also
loves
the
Congress
a
lot…Critics
felt
the
Bharat
Jodo
Yatra
will
fail
in
Rajasthan
due
to
factionalism,
but
it
has
been
a
huge
success
here
and
the
response
has
been
overwhelming,”
Gandhi
said.

He
also
said
the
Congress
was
different
from
a
large
number
of
Opposition
parties
as
it
represents
a
vision
for
the
country
which
he
asserted
none
of
the
regional
parties
can
do.

“We
are
different
from
a
large
number
of
Opposition
parties,
we
work
with
them,
we
appreciate
them,
we
believe
that
they
are
important
but
we
are
different
and
the
way
we
are
different
is
that
we
represent
a
national
ideology,
we
represent
a
vision
for
the
country,”
Gandhi
said.

He
claimed
that
none
of
the
regional
parties
can
represent
a
vision
for
the
country.

They
can
represent
a
vision
for
a
community
or
a
state
but
they
cannot
represent
a
vision
for
the
country,
he
added.

“What
we
are
competing
with
is
a
vision
that
the
BJP
is
proposing
for
the
country.
So
the
space
of
the
Congress
party
will
always
be
there,
the
people
who
believe
in
the
Congress
will
always
be
there,
it’s
a
question
of
getting
them
excited,
getting
them
motivated
and
getting
them
to
believe
in
what
they
stand
for
which
the
yatra
has
been
very
good
at
doing,”
he
said.

Asked
when
would
the
Congress
take
the
lead
in
uniting
the
Opposition
on
the
road
to
2024,
Gandhi
said
this
should
be
asked
of
party
chief
Mallikarjun
Kharge.

“I
have
a
view
that
the
Congress
must
work
with
all
the
opposition
parties.
There
is
a
lot
of
space
to
do
that.
But
the
exact
strategy
for
how
it
is
going
to
be
done
that
you
will
have
to
ask
the
new
Congress
president,
I
am
not
involved
in
that
right
now,”
he
said.

Gandhi
alleged
there
are
multiple
reasons
why
the
BJP
wins
elections
such
as
“they
have
huge
amounts
of
money,
they
use
the
institutions
of
the
country,
they
pressurize
and
threaten
people”.
Those
tools
are
not
available
to
the
Congress
and
it
does
not
want
to
use
them,
he
said.

“We
will
never
take
over
the
institutions
of
this
country
because
we
are
the
ones
who
built
them
and
we
know
that
they
belong
to
the
people
of
this
country,
we
will
not
touch
them.
We
don’t
have
access
to
that
money
we
never
will.
We
don’t
offer
the
conveniences
that
the
BJP
offers
as
we
say
inconvenient
things
related
to
farmers,
labourers
and
small
businesses
and
do
all
that,
so
we
will
never
get
that
money,”
he
said.

Gandhi
said
another
reason
why
the
BJP
wins
elections
is
because
they
are
very
clear
on
who
they
are.

“They
are
hateful,
I
don’t
agree
with
them,
they
divide
India,
I
don’t
agree
with
them,
but
they
have
complete
clarity
on
who
they
are.
It
is
easy
to
have
clarity
on
who
they
are
because
for
them
it
is
–
‘do
you
hate
so
and
so,
yes
you
do,
ok
that’s
what
you
are’.
For
us
that
is
much
more
complicated,”
Gandhi
opined.

He
claims
that
the
day
the
Congress
understands
in-depth
who
it
is
and
what
it
stands
for,
it
will
win
every
election
that
it
faces.

There
is
also
the
matter
of
fighting
the
elections
operationally
which
the
Congress
is
getting
better
at,
Gandhi
said.

The
Himachal
Pradesh
election,
“we
faced
the
full
money
power
of
the
BJP,
its
full
organisational
capability,
but
we
beat
them”,
he
said.

“And
frankly
in
Gujarat,
if
the
AAP
had
not
been
put
up
as
a
proxy
and
had
not
been
used
to
target
the
Congress,
we
would
have
probably
beaten
the
BJP
there
as
well,”
Gandhi
said.

The
former
Congress
chief
also
said
that
the
media
writes
about
Aishwarya
Rai,
Virat
Kohli,
Amitabh
Bachchan,
but
not
about
knowledge,
love
one
can
get
from
general
public.

The
yatra,
which
was
launched
on
September
7
in
Kanyakumari
has
traversed
eight
states
Tamil
Nadu,
Kerala,
Karnataka,
Telangana,
Andhra
Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Madhya
Pradesh
and
now,
Rajasthan.

It
has
seen
participation
from
a
cross-section
of
society,
including
film
and
TV
celebrities
such
as
Pooja
Bhatt,
Riya
Sen,
Sushant
Singh,
Swara
Bhasker,
Rashami
Desai,
Akanksha
Puri
and
Amol
Palekar.

Besides
participation
from
tinsel
town
celebrities,
writers,
military
veterans,
including
former
Navy
chief
admiral
L
Ramdas,
Opposition
leaders
such
as
Shiv
Sena’s
Aaditya
Thackeray
and
the
NCP’s
Supriya
Sule,
and
former
RBI
governor
Raghuram
Rajan,
have
also
joined
the
march
at
various
points.