Rahul@US: BJP can be defeated if...

May 31, 2023 11:49

Rahul Gandhi at Santa Cruz, USA

The ruling BJP can be defeated if the Opposition is "aligned properly" and the Congress party is working towards it and it is "coming along very nicely", Rahul Gandhi has told Indian Americans here, citing his party's emphatic victory in the recent assembly elections in Karnataka.

Responding to questions from the moderator and the audiences at an event at the Silicon Valley Campus of the University of California in Santa Cruz on Tuesday, Gandhi said he can clearly see "vulnerabilities" in the BJP.

"As a political entrepreneur, I can clearly see vulnerabilities in the BJP... The BJP can be defeated if the Opposition is aligned properly," he said. "If you look at the Karnataka elections, the general sense is that the Congress Party fought the BJP and defeated the BJP. But what is not well understood is the mechanics that we used," he said.

"The Congress party used a completely different approach to fighting an election and building a narrative," Gandhi said, adding that elements of what happened in Karnataka came out of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.

In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, the Congress won 135 seats, while incumbent BJP and the former prime minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) got 66 and 19, respectively. Gandhi said in the Karnataka elections, the BJP spent 10 times more money than the Congress party.

He said the country needed an alternative vision to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, in addition to having a united Opposition in the 2024 general elections.

"On the matter of opposition unity, we are working towards it and it is coming along very nicely. But I think in order to defeat the BJP, you need more than just opposition unity. Just opposition unity, in my opinion, is not going to be enough to do the job. I think you need an alternative vision to the BJP," he said. "Part of Bharat Jodo Yatra was the first step in proposing such a vision. It's the vision that all opposition parties are aligned with. No opposition party would disagree with the idea of the Bharat Jodo Yatra," he said.

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