Rahul Gandhi injected a much-needed dose of confidence and optimism by asserting that his party was on course to form the next government at the centre.
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi injected a much-needed dose of confidence and optimism in Congress ranks by asserting that his party was on course to form the next government at the centre with Manmohan Singh as prime minister.
His assertion came in the backdrop of Priyanka’s comments of a close contest and party colleague Digvijay Singh’s that the Congress was prepared to sit in the opposition.
Rahul made it clear that the Congress party was contesting to win and form the next government and not to sit in the Opposition. He also reached out to the Left parties, saying that despite some obvious differences there was a lot of common ground between the two parties.
“On a lot of concepts, like education and health, we agree with the Left. There is a lot of meeting ground with the Left. There is a reasonable amount of common space. There is absolutely no meeting ground with the BJP, for what they did in Gujarat, Karnataka and Orissa,” he said.
Rahul appeared confident that in the post-poll scenario the Left would come around to supporting Manmohan Singh as prime minister. “I am confident that the Left would rather have a Congress prime minister,” he said.
This was Rahul Gandhi’s first formal interaction with the media and he put in a confident and polished performance. Gone was the diffidence. He spoke with candour on a range of subjects. Significantly, on the question of misuse of CBI, he admitted that most political parties, including the Congress, were known “to put pressure on institutions. It’s a systemic problem”.
Rahul appeared gung ho about the Congress’s prospects. He said the party was better placed this time than in 2004. “The BJP has faded out of the fight very early in the elections and the NDA exists only in the minds of some BJP leaders”. He also claimed that his party was poised to win a large number of seats in Orissa, Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.
Hinting at a possible realignment of forces after the polls, Rahul referred to the AIADMK and JD(U) as like-minded parties.
The AICC general secretary spoke with passion about his attempts to reorganise the Youth Congress by holding transparent elections and infusing fresh blood. “What is happening there is truly remarkable. It’s a long process. But once it’s complete, it will give a tremendous fillip to the party.” He made it clear that as far as he was concerned he would prefer to concentrate on the organisation unless he was forced to join the government, either by the prime minister or his boss, the Congress president.
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