Huge undercurrent against BJP: Rahul
New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said there is a "massive undercurrent" against the BJP on the ground and if the opposition stands effectively with an alternative vision it will be very difficult for ruling dispensation to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters here, he said there is a need for the opposition parties to have "mutual respect" for each other. He said the opposition has to present a national ideology as an alternative to people of the country which the regional outfits do not have and only the Congress has.
Gandhi noted that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a framework and a way of thinking of the Congress party on bringing people together and making them comfortable.
This is the ninth press conference of Gandhi during the Yatra, which started on September 7. He also claimed that the opposition parties are with the Bharat Jodo Yatra but in today's atmosphere, they have political and other compulsions that are keeping them away from joining it. He, however, said the doors of the Yatra are open for anyone who wants a united India free of violence and hatred.
"I think if the opposition stands effectively with a vision, what I am hearing and seeing from the ground, it will be very difficult for the BJP to win. But, the opposition has to coordinate properly and the opposition has to go to the people of India with an alternative vision. But, there is a huge undercurrent against the BJP, a massive undercurrent," he told reporters.
Gandhi asserted that one thing is important that this is no longer a tactical political fight, where some group joins and defeats the BJP as that thing is of the past.
"This is so as the entire institutional framework of the country is in the hands of one ideology and it dominates the country's political space completely. To defeat them now, there is need for an ideology," he said.
Noting that he respects the opposition a lot, the Congress leader said if one looks at the Samajwadi Party, it does not have a national ideology.
"They do have a positioning in Uttar Pradesh and they may not come in order to defend that, but they do not have a national ideology. Samajwadi Party's idea will not work in Kerala, Karnatak or Bihar. So there is need for a central ideological framework, which only the Congress can provide and that is our role.
"But, our role is also to make the opposition people feel comfortable and that they are respected," he said.
Spelling out his vision, he said India should emerge as a "production nation" instead of a "rent-seeking" nation. It should have an education policy that allows children to give wings to their imagination and look beyond careers in medicine, engineering, civil services and law, he added.
